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No one wants to have to deal with car accidents, considering the plethora of inconveniences that can come along. Imagine living your normal life going about your business when someone else's negligence leaves you hurt and with a much worse quality of life than you had before. How is that fair to anyone?
This means that there's now a car accident case to deal with and potentially an insurance company that is way less concerned with ensuring that victims are taken care of and way more worried about how much money it stands to lose.
Even if someone can escape what would be accepted as common car accident injuries, the challenges faced are not always physical. The implications of a car crash on mental health shouldn't be ignored considering that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not uncommon following these incidents.
What Are Some of the Factors That Determine the Settlement Amount for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
As is always the case with personal injury cases, what you can recover depends on your choice or lack thereof to retain the services of an experienced personal injury attorney to assist with navigating the slippery slope of these kinds of cases.
How someone is affected is a big part of it, but there's also the matter of proving that these effects are really at play and that this isn't just a cash grab.
As attorneys aim to ensure that their clients can recover compensation for PTSD after a car accident, the main considerations in St. Louis will usually fall under these categories:
The circumstances that led to the accident
How the accident has changed the nature of relationships in the victim's life
How the accident has had an impact on the victim's ability to work effectively
The medical bills and minor to serious injuries that would've been suffered when the accident occurred.
While some are more difficult than others, the idea is to gather evidence as effectively as possible in all these areas to prove what is needed.
Are There Signs That Constitute a PTSD Diagnosis?
It may surprise you to know that while there are a variety of things that can lead to PTSD, the most common among them is the occurrence of motor vehicle accidents. A big part of this is the way that car accidents happen, especially given what the circumstances may have been just before.
Remember that nobody plans for an accident to happen. They just come out of nowhere. At one moment, everything is fine and the victim is just going about everyday life, when the next, there's an accident, often complete with physical injuries, alongside mental and emotional concerns.
It's usually good to get a medical evaluation to establish if there is an instance of PTSD at play. However, you will often find that people who do suffer PTSD after a car accident may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:
Flashbacks to the accident
An unexplainable level of paranoia, irritation, or anger
A consistent level of fatigue or an inability to sleep effectively
Difficulty concentrating
A state of emotional numbness
Staying away from any places, people, or things that could be reminders of the accident that happened.
Bear in mind that no rule encompasses everyone since circumstances from one accident to the next will be very different. This is one of the reasons why people find that one PTSD settlement may be a lot more or a lot less than another, even though functionally, the accidents looked the same.
Why Should Accident Victims Work with Auto Accident Lawyers?
Working with a motor vehicle accident lawyer in St. Louis can save you from a lot of the headaches you would have otherwise. Insurance coverage, for example, is meant to assist in situations such as car accidents to take care of damages, as well as any health concerns that may come up from effects such as traumatic brain injuries and more.
However, the insurance claims process is not necessarily what many think it will be. The insurance company of the negligent driver will do all it can to ensure that it doesn't have to pay the full fair settlement. In fact, it will try to avoid dealing with any payment at all if it can, which completely neglects the needs of the victim to get adequate care for what took place in the accident.
A well-seasoned attorney will represent you throughout this insurance claim to ensure that none of the typical tricks are used against you. They can help with questions regarding a concussion car accident settlement amount. This will be accompanied by building a strong case through research and documentation, which will be used to attempt to recover the damages you suffered.
If a settlement cannot be reached, then the lawyer will represent you in taking the claim to trial.
What Should You Do if You Think You're Experiencing PTSD Symptoms?
It's reasonable to expect that there will be some level of distress after a car accident, especially one in which you have suffered some kind of serious injury. However, you may find that whatever you're experiencing seems to be prolonged, which is one of the key indicators that you may be dealing with PTSD.
In most cases, you shouldn't be dealing with the distress element of things for more than a month if it is under normal circumstances. The problem with diagnosing PTSD is that no one can just look at a victim and do it.
Mental health professionals, who are the ones most equipped to diagnose the matter, will often not be able to do so until the symptoms associated with it have gotten significantly worse than they were previously.
However, this doesn't change the need to prove things for the sake of a settlement. Therefore, here are some actions to take:
Get a diagnosis. There will usually be a very good reason for someone to think that they or a loved one may be suffering from PTSD after a car accident. If that is the case, then it does help to get a professional diagnosis. As hard as it may be to definitively say that someone is suffering from PTSD, there is no wall to recover full compensation for a personal injury claim without an official diagnosis.
Evidence is key. One of the things about claiming damages in any personal injury claim is that there is a need to establish how the occurrence of the accident has changed your quality of life. One of the ways to do this is to lean on medical records and work records. The latter can be observed both before and after the accident to observe how your patterns have changed.
Proof in PTSD Car Accident Settlements
If you were to break your arm or fracture your skull from a car accident, it would be very difficult for the opposing attorneys to say that you are not suffering from the injuries that are being claimed. Of course, with PTSD it's quite a bit more difficult.
This is one of the reasons why the services of an expert lawyer are key since they know exactly what to do to help you prove that you are in fact suffering from PTSD, which is directly related to a car accident that you were in.
Your lawyer will likely use the following and more to help your case:
Testimony from experts in the PTSD field
Journal notes or entries covering your PTSD following the car accident.
Testimony from doctors who worked with you following the accident
Medical records indicating the effects of the accident on you
Testimony from your loved ones such as family members who would be present to see how things have changed since the accident occurred.
How Much Should You Expect as an Average Settlement for PTSD?
Honestly, there isn't an average amount that you should be looking at for your PTSD settlement in Missouri, and this is because of an important point that was stated before. The circumstances from one accident to the next can be quite different.
Similarly, not everyone will experience PTSD in the same way following a car accident. This means that what is recoverable will wildly differ from one case to the next.
A good idea is to speak to an attorney about your unique set of circumstances to get an idea of what you should realistically expect. They can also advise on a minor injury car accident settlement too.
Other Damages That You May Be Able to Recover
Apart from PTSD, which is a noneconomic damage, there are others, alongside economic damages that can be collected following a car accident. Some of these include lost wages, damaged property, loss of enjoyment, pain and suffering, and medical expenses.
Retain the Services of an Established, Passionate St. Louis Car Accident Lawyer Today!
PTSD is not an easy thing to deal with, and there should be no reason why someone who is a negligent party gets to cause someone to have it with no repercussions.
If you are a car accident victim in St. Louis, schedule a free case review today with Powell Law Firm!
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