How Do Temporary vs. Permanent Injuries from Car Accidents Affect Compensation Claims?

What Are Permanent Injuries in a Car Accident?

The consequences of car accidents can be minor or severe, depending on the crash’s impact. Victims often suffer injuries that range from minor to life-threatening. Recovery periods differ, with some injuries taking only a short time to heal, while others take a more extended time or never heal completely.

If you or your loved one got involved in an accident, you could have sustained temporary or permanent injuries. Personal injury lawyers in North Carolina say that understanding the differences is crucial in determining how much compensation you can collect for the damages.

Permanent injuries are physical or mental impairments that can affect your long-term ability to work or lead an everyday life. The injuries have a long-lasting impact, and you might never recover from them completely, forcing you to adapt to living with them.

Examples of Total Permanent Disability

In helping car accident victims pursue compensation, car accident attorneys in North Carolina often encounter clients with various forms of permanent disabilities. Examples are:

• Loss of limb mobility: The inability to use your arms or legs like before the accident can dramatically affect your ability to return to work or lead a normal life.
• Permanent brain damage: It affects cognitive function, making it impossible or hard to process information or make decisions.
• Total blindness: Loss of vision can affect your independence, forcing you to relearn many daily functions and tasks. The possibility is high that the disability will affect and inhibit your old way of life.
• Total deafness: The sense of hearing is crucial to living an everyday life, and a car crash could rupture the eardrums or affect hearing in the long term.
• Paralysis: You could sustain partial or total paralysis that inhibits your movements, ultimately lowering the quality of your life

Permanent injuries could mean that you need care around the clock, which is an added expense you didn’t have before the accident. They also affect your social and professional relationships and could cause emotional and psychological trauma. While you may be able to return to work with a permanent disability, it may not be in the same capacity as before.

What Are Temporary Injuries in Car Accidents?

Unlike permanent injuries, temporary ones usually heal within a shorter time. The challenges they present to the victim are not as extreme as those of permanent injuries. Examples are:

• Bruises
• Fractured bones
• Whiplash
• Back or neck injuries
• Sprains
• Torn ligaments

While they can inhibit your earning capacity and daily activities for some time, you may be able to return to work or your way of life as before the accident. However, you shouldn’t downplay the impact of temporary injuries just because they’re less severe or last a shorter time than permanent injuries.

What seems like a temporary injury could become complicated and permanent if not given proper medical care and attention. North Carolina car accident lawyers strongly advise victims to seek medical help immediately after a crash, no matter how minor they think the injuries are.

How Does the Extent of Injury Affect Compensation?

Under most circumstances, it’s not possible to determine whether an injury is temporary or permanent until the victim reaches the “maximum medical improvement.” At this stage, the physician can give a more comprehensive report on whether the condition will improve with or without ongoing medical treatment.

North Carolina personal injury attorneys and insurance adjusters often evaluate the extent of the injuries sustained to calculate how much compensation is worth, accounting for the following:

• Cost of emergency treatment
• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Loss of earning capacity
• Loss of consortium
• Emotional trauma
• Pain and suffering

With aggressive North Carolina car accident lawyers fighting for your rights, your chances of recovering the maximum compensation are enhanced. The court may also award punitive damages if the injuries are extreme due to the at-fault party’s negligence.

What is the Role of Pain and Suffering in Calculating Compensation?

Pain and suffering comprise the physical and emotional pain a car accident victim has to endure due to the injuries sustained after a car accident. The situation can take multiple forms, such as chronic headaches, depression, anxiety, or back pain. Typically, any emotional distress and physical pain is considered pain and suffering, for which you should obtain compensation.

The damages are non-economic, as no monetary value is attached to them. The compensation you can obtain for pain and suffering after a car accident depends on various factors depending on your case circumstances. However, insurance adjusters may try to downplay your pain and suffering to avoid compensating you for what their case is worth.

In calculating a suitable compensation amount for pain and suffering, your attorneys will use one of the following methods:

• The multiplier method multiplies the value of the economic damages with a specific number between 1.5 and 5 based on the severity of the injuries. The more severe they are, the higher the compensation amount.
• The per diem method calculates the daily cost of pain and suffering on any day and multiplies it by the number of days the injuries are expected to last.

An Experienced Car Accident Attorney Fighting for the Maximum Compensation You Deserve

Being injured in a car accident can be devastating, whether the injuries are temporary or permanent. They can change the course of your life and lower its quality, leaving you unable to live as you did before the accident. Skilled personal injury attorneys in North Carolina can help you pursue compensation for the inconvenience, medical expenses, and pain and suffering you incur.

Brent Adams & Associates has a team of knowledgeable and skilled personal injury lawyers who can look into your case and help you fight for the compensation you deserve. Working with experienced physicians, we can evaluate the extent of your injuries to ensure they are adequately covered in the compensation amount you claim. Call us at 910-249-6891 to schedule a FREE consultation.