What Happens If I Lose My Personal Injury Claim?

If you can’t settle with an insurance company, filing a personal injury lawsuit is an essential step if you hope to recover damages after an accident. Injuries that result from a serious accident can leave you with chronic pain, long-term medical issues or a permanent disability. It is important to get compensation for damages if someone’s negligent actions cause you harm. Unfortunately, some issues can lead to you losing your personal injury claim. The consequences of a loss can be catastrophic if bills accumulate, and you cannot care for yourself or your loved ones. You need Mike Morse Law Firm on your side after an accident.

What Is the Likely Outcome of Losing Your Personal Injury Claim?

Unfortunately, a personal injury claim loss can lead to disastrous consequences that affect your entire life. The damages for personal injury involve compensation for physical and emotional suffering. If you lose your case, these are critical economic and non-economic damages you won’t receive the necessary compensation to cover.

Economic Damages

These damages compensate you for losses and out-of-pocket costs from your injury in an accident. These losses all have a specific dollar value.

Medical Expenses

Medical costs after an accident accrue rapidly. Depending on the extent of your injuries, you could require one or more surgeries and post-operative care. These are types of accident injuries seen in personal injury cases:

• Broken bones
• Cuts
• Burns
• Neck injuries
• Internal organ damage
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries

In Michigan, 30% of TBIs are caused by car crashes. A traumatic brain injury is often an incapacitating injury. It can affect attention, problem-solving skills, memory, speech and language, and behavior. The costs of medical treatment alone frequently last a lifetime, which is why compensation for personal injury is critical to help you manage as you move forward in life.

Lost Wages

Many individuals are unable to work after an accident because they require healing time. Recovering lost wages is an integral part of an injury claim.

Loss of future earning capacity

If you suffer severe injuries, your ability to work and earn money can be significantly reduced. An attorney carefully assesses the potentiality of your future earnings and calculates the losses. If you had a career with consistent salary increases and can no longer perform similar functions within your field, these losses are considered when calculating damages.

Long-term medical care

If you find yourself in need of long-term care, it is essential to have compensation to cover this ongoing expense. Long-term care facilities and long-term, in-home care services are both exceedingly costly. Most people can’t weather these bills without quickly exhausting their financial resources.

Rehabilitation services

Some individuals can recover all or some of their previous physical health with rehabilitation services. However, rehabilitation usually requires an intensive therapy regimen, and bills rack up fast when you need weeks or months of treatment.

Non-Economic Damages

These damages don’t have a particular dollar value but cover substantial losses that affect your quality of life.

Pain and Suffering

In Michigan, you can receive unlimited non-economic damages if your accident injury meets the threshold of “serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement.” The law allows you damages for pain and suffering because the physical pain and emotional distress resulting from an injury are two of the most devastating outcomes for accident victims. A compensatory award can have lifelong benefits if the court determines that you qualify for these damages.

Loss of Enjoyment of Life

There is more to your quality of life than healing from your physical injuries. The emotional and psychological toll a bad accident causes can have lasting effects. You could be dealing with mental health issues for years to come. A personal injury attorney knows the lasting effects injuries have on victims and understands the importance of making an individual as whole as possible after a traumatic event.

What Issues Contribute To Losing a Personal Injury Claim?

There are some key reasons people lose personal injury claims. It is best to avoid these pitfalls, so you don’t lose your right to a legal remedy.

• Deciding not to hire an attorney: On a scale of poor legal decisions, not having an attorney is big. If you attempt self-representation, your case will likely end quickly and badly. It requires exceptional legal knowledge to handle a personal injury claim that non-professionals don’t possess.
• Speaking with an insurance company: Talking with an insurance company before consulting an attorney is not advised. An insurer will seize on any misstatements or errors and use this information to disprove your claim.
• Discussing your case in a public forum: Most people think nothing of posting a few accident pictures or videos on social media and discussing the situation as they do with other events. In personal injury claims, insurance companies and other legal teams will assess the details provided by this information as potential evidence to use against you or to support their side of the case.
• Misrepresenting your claim: Being honest with your attorney about your case facts is imperative. Exaggerating claims, telling half-truths, being knowingly dishonest or omitting information can jeopardize your claim.
• Missing the statute of limitations deadline: The statute of limitations in Michigan is three years to file a personal injury lawsuit, with few exceptions. It is important to not miss this filing deadline. Past this point, the court will more than likely summarily dismiss a case, if the defendant’s lawyer enters a motion for dismissal.
• Having a significant percentage of fault for your injuries: Michigan has a modified comparative fault law that means your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault in an accident. This law includes the 51% rule. You can’t recover any damages if you are over 50% at fault for your injuries. An attorney knows how to work with these fault determinations, so having legal representation when you bear some responsibility is essential to the outcome of your claim.
• Failing to disclose previous accident information: If you suffered similar injuries in a previous accident, it could be problematic to prove the recent accident caused your injury damage. A lawyer needs to know this information up front. If this comes up in court, it could pose a serious risk to the efficacy of your case.

If you lose your case, asking a judge for a retrial or appealing your case are rarely viable options. This is why personal injury lawyers are careful about the cases they take. Most work on a contingency fee basis and get paid only when your case is settled or won. The last thing an attorney wants is surprises. An attorney will cover all the bases to know how to represent you, and you are counted on to hold up your end of the legal agreement.

Work with Michigan’s Largest Personal Injury Firm

At Mike Morse Law Firm, we carefully assess the facts of your accident to ensure there is cause to pursue a personal injury lawsuit. If the negligent actions of another person have hurt you, you deserve compensation for your injuries. Working cooperatively is the best way we can help you. We are experienced personal injury attorneys who provide sound legal advice whether you settle with an insurance company or decide to pursue a lawsuit. Contact us for a free case evaluation.

Sources:

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(ase0teazbl0z2oq5pckw2tjf))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-500-3135

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(dkctnmcza3bzjss034aj4pgs))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=mcl-600-2959

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(1d4mu2srgmhtd5seaufn0aud))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-600-5805