How Are Damages Calculated in a Motorcycle Accident Case?
If you were involved in a motorcycle accident, you are likely entitled to damages from the person or persons responsible for your injuries.
Denver motorcycle accident attorney Brian Pushchak is dedicated to ensuring you get the full compensation you are owed according to the law. But how do we calculate the damages you might receive from your motorcycle accident lawsuit?
Compensation calculation breaks down into five parts:
- Economic damages
- Noneconomic damages
- Permanent Impairment/Disability
- Permanent Disfigurement
- Adjustment for liability
In all five parts, your motorcycle accident attorney can make a big difference in the amount of compensation you receive.
Calculating Economic Damages
Economic damages refer to the monetary losses you suffer because of your motorcycle accident. This might include:
- Property damage
- Medical expenses (past and future)
- Loss of earnings
Property damage might include your motorcycle, helmet, clothing, and other property damaged by your motorcycle accident. The amount of property damage you can recover will depend on appraisals for the property in question and may not be adequate to pay for replacing or repairing your property. Mr. Pushchak can help you get property valuations that accurately reflect what you’ve lost.
Medical expenses include both current and future cost for medical care related to your motorcycle accident. Current medical expenses can be easy to total, but it’s a lot harder to anticipate the future medical expenses you will likely incur from your motorcycle accident injuries. As an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer, Mr. Pushchak knows what medical expenses are likely. He’s helped many other motorcycle accident victims go through the process, so he knows what expenses you’re likely to face.
In a similar fashion, loss of earnings can be difficult to calculate. You know how much work you’ve missed, but not how much work you’re going to miss. In addition, you can’t be sure you’ll be able to return to your old job after you recover from injuries. Some injuries, like a hurt arm that won’t fully heal, might clearly keep you from your former work. Other injuries might take skillful argument from Mr. Pushchak to convince a jury of the reality that you can’t return to your former work because of your injury.
Calculating Noneconomic Damages
With noneconomic damages, there is little that we can calculate precisely. Without an objective standard, these rely even more on the ability of your motorcycle accident attorney to convey your suffering to the jury. Your lawyer must convince a jury that your noneconomic damages are worth compensation. Regardless of what the jury says, however, Colorado caps noneconomic damages. The current adjusted for inflation cap on noneconomic damages is nearly $614,000, though the court might award up to twice that if presented with clear and convincing evidence.
Permanent Impairment and Disfigurement Damages
More likely than not, if you were involved in a serious motorcycle collision you may suffer from permanent injuries such as fractured bones, internal organ damage, and even a brain injury. If you needed surgery and have scarring to your body then you will experience disfigurement as a result. These categories of damages are incredibly important as they have life-long impact to the kind and quality of your life. Documenting these damages with the best medical experts is one of the most important parts of your case.
Adjustment for Liability
In Colorado, your payment for damages is reduced by the degree to which the jury finds you are responsible for the accident. Let us suppose, for example, that the jury finds you are entitled to $600,000 in damages, but you are 25% responsible for your motorcycle accident. In that case, your damages would be reduced by $150,000 (25% of $600,000). You would then receive $450,000. However, if the jury finds you are 51% or more responsible for your accident, you cannot recover any damages.
Getting the right Denver motorcycle accident attorney can make a big difference here. Convincing a jury that you’re not responsible for your accident translates directly to money in your pocket.
Why Choose Pushchak Law for Your Denver Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit
We’ve talked about several ways that your choice of Denver motorcycle accident attorney can make a difference in the compensation you get for damages. Choose a lawyer who is dedicated to fighting for the maximum compensation you deserve under the law.
The Informed Decisions™ approach at Pushchak Law helps you make the right choices when it comes to your lawsuit. We take the time to understand what really matters in your lawsuit, then we give you advice on how to achieve the result you want and need. However, the choices remain yours.
We will give you our personal contact information so you can always reach us with questions or concerns about your lawsuit. We do this because we care about you and understand the anxieties that can come from this complicated process.
Want to learn more about how our unique approach to motorcycle accident lawsuits can help you? Please call 303-372-6145 or contact Pushchak Law today for a free initial consultation.
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