Calculating Damages For Personal Injury

The first thing you need to do if you are an accident victim and have suffered personal injuries, is seek counsel from a highly qualified personal injury attorney in Georgia. You cannot represent yourself in cases such as this due to the complexity of the issues involved.Hiring a lawyer is the smartest thing you can do to protect your rights and ensure that you receive a just award from the court for your pain and suffering; however, we’re not just talking pain and suffering, we’re also talking about medical expenses, possibly property damages, loss of wages, loss of consortium and perhaps even punitive damages.This isn’t an easy area of the law and the amount of time and work your attorney will be putting into your case will be enormous. The years of experience these attorneys have will stand you in good stead when they are able to reasonably estimate the amount of damages you may receive.To understand how this works, you need to know that various elements are at play when calculating monetary damages. One of the things often overlooked is the inclusion of negotiations to assess fault, how much property damage there is, the amount of pain and suffering and yes, even loss of enjoyment.When these first run calculations are done, this is the stage at which your Georgia personal injury lawyer may advise you to file for punitive damages. Most often this advice comes as a result of the assessment of fault and the precise nature of the accident – meaning the degree of negligence, etc. involved.Be aware that there are statutes of limitations that restrict the period of time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. Don’t wait, as these laws vary from state to state and you may miss the deadline if you delay too long.