Catastrophic injury accidents can be nightmarish. These accidents can permanently upend the way you live your life, forcing you to contend with new physical limitations you never imagined. To make matters worse, survivors like you can often trace those forcible life changes back to one party’s bad behavior.
The reality of negligence’s role in catastrophic injury accidents can make your losses sting all the more. Only the state of Indiana can assume legal action against the party responsible for your catastrophic injury accident.
That said, you still have legal options at your disposal. You can work with Plainfield, IN, catastrophic injury lawyers to demand financial compensation for your losses. Contact us today to book a free case evaluation. Our Plainfield personal injury lawyers are ready to go to court on your behalf.
Classifying a Catastrophic Injury
You can distinguish a catastrophic injury from a less severe injury by accounting for the impact said injury has had on your ability to meet your everyday needs.
Has an injury forced you out of a long-term workplace position or otherwise made it impossible for you to do your job? Does the injury require substantial medical attention? If so, you may have a catastrophic injury on your hands.
You can specifically work with medical professionals to determine the overall impact of such an injury on your everyday life. Once you have a medical professional’s opinion written or recorded, you can take that statement to a civil judge as evidence of the severity of your losses.
What Injuries Constitute Catastrophic Injuries?
There are several types of injuries that fall under the “catastrophic” umbrella, including the following:
- Spinal cord injuries
- Temporary or permanent paralysis
- Multiple broken or fractured bones
- Burns
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Injuries requiring amputation
- Damage to the internal organs
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What Accidents Can Cause Catastrophic Injuries?
If the party responsible for a personal injury accident engages in gross negligence or recklessness, the severity of their misconduct can see survivors like you contend with more severe losses. In other words, most personal injury accidents can cause catastrophic injuries.
Some of the accidents that most frequently result in catastrophic injuries include the following:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Construction site accidents
- Rideshare accidents
- Product failures
- Medical malpractice
In other words, don’t let the nature of your case prevent you from assuming legal action against a liable party. You can work with medical professionals and Plainfield catastrophic injury lawyers to assess your circumstances and file a catastrophic injury claim accordingly.
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How Expensive Can Catastrophic Injuries Become?
Unfortunately, the cost of a catastrophic injury can rapidly add up. The most common economic expenses you may find yourself dealing with can include the following:
- Damaged property and its essential replacement
- Property rentals, if applicable
- Emergency medical expenses
- Long-term medical expenses, including specialist visits
- Medical aides and pain medication
- In-home care, if applicable
You may also have to take a considerable amount of unpaid time away from work to recover from your injuries. That time away from work can see a sharp decrease in your paychecks, making it all the more difficult to pay for your post-accident care.
In other words, there’s no specific amount of money you should expect to spend after a catastrophic injury accident. Each accident involves its own losses and thereby generates its own expenses.
You can, however, keep track of what your post-accident expenses look like. If you bring evidence of those expenses forward in civil court, you can demand compensation for your losses.
How to Get Compensation for a Catastrophic Injury
There are a few different ways for you to secure post-accident compensation for your catastrophic injury losses. These methods can include the following:
Filing an Insurance Claim
So long as you can prove that another party caused your accident, you may have the right to demand compensation from that party’s insurance provider. That said, if you want to file an insurance claim with a liable party’s provider, you need to prove that:
- The offending party behaved negligently, causing your accident
- You endured significant financial losses due to the offending party’s negligence
Unfortunately, not everyone on the road today has the insurance they need to protect you from a catastrophic injury. Even if you receive a settlement from the offending party’s insurance provider, that settlement may not give you enough support to pay your bills.
What’s more, most insurance providers are always looking for ways to reduce the financial contributions they have to make to your recovery. Some insurance claims providers act in bad faith to minimize the value of your losses. Others may outright deny your insurance claim, regardless of your circumstances.
The good news is that you can act in the face of this misconduct. Plainfield, IN, catastrophic injury attorneys can challenge an insurance provider’s bad faith behavior and make sure your voice gets heard.
Going to Civil Court
If you don’t get the support you want from an insurance provider, you can file a personal injury claim against a liable party in civil court. These civil claims do not work like criminal claims. The offending party won’t go to jail based on accusations made in civil court. Instead, filing a civil claim allows you to demand a fair settlement from the liable party under a judge’s supervision.
You must file a civil claim with Indiana courts if you want to initiate legal action against the party responsible for your catastrophic injury accident. Taking a personal injury claim to civil court doesn’t mean that you’re committing to a civil trial. It’s up to you whether you pursue private settlement negotiations or a trial.
Neither method is better than the other. Instead, each has its pros and cons, including the amount of time it takes to get you a fair settlement. You can discuss which method you prefer during your case evaluation.
What Information to Include in a Catastrophic Injury Claim
You need evidence to build a strong catastrophic injury claim. Without evidence, you can’t prove that another party owes you damages, let alone the total value of your case. That said, no one wants you to go back to the scene of an accident, particularly not while you’re still recovering. That’s why our investigative team does so for you.
You can count on Vaughan & Vaughan to help collect the evidence that’s most relevant to questions of catastrophic injury liability. We can then work with a team of expert witnesses to analyze that evidence and compile it into a claim. So long as we meet Indiana’s burden of proof, we can carry your case forward.
Note that while you may have a gut feeling about catastrophic injury accident liability, our right to hold a party responsible for your losses hinges on the evidence we find. Our evidence may see us hold a range of unexpected parties liable for your losses, from Fortune 500 companies to government officials.
Don’t let those possibilities worry you, though. You can count on our team to keep you up to date as we investigate your losses. We can tell you what party we intend to hold liable for your losses before we file your personal injury claim with a civil judge.
How to Estimate the Value of a Catastrophic Injury Claim
Both you and an attorney can estimate the value of your catastrophic injury claim by accounting for the dollar value of the losses you endured in your accident. Remember, you can only request financial compensation for losses that you can tie back to the liable party’s misconduct. With that in mind, it’s important to keep track of any expenses you think might relate to your crash.
Some of the most common damages to appear in an injured party’s catastrophic injury claim can include your economic losses. You may demand that a liable party pay for your medical expenses, both long and short-term, as well as the restoration and repair of your damaged property. These parties may even have to compensate you for your lost wages.
What’s more, you can demand financial compensation for non-economic losses. Your non-economic losses can include your pain and suffering, mental distress, and post-accident stress. You can even integrate severe emotional anguish into your demand for damages should a catastrophic injury have permanently upended your life.
You can work with our attorneys to determine what damages you might qualify for long before we take your case to civil court.
When to File a Catastrophic Injury Claim
If you want your catastrophic injury claim to move forward, you need to submit it to an attorney within Indiana’s personal injury statute of limitations, Indiana Code section 34-11-2-4. This statute of limitations gives you no more than two years after your accident to find evidence of another party’s negligence.
Should you find yourself unable to bring a claim forward within your two-year time period, you may waive your right to fair financial compensation from the liable party. Fortunately, you don’t have to build a claim on your own. When you work with Plainfield personal injury attorneys, you can more effectively stay on top of your relevant filing deadlines.
Our team specifically uses our expertise to streamline an investigation into your losses without aggravating your recovery. You can learn more about the specific services we offer during an initial case evaluation with our team.
Do You Need to Work With an Attorney to File a Catastrophic Injury Claim?
Indiana civil courts do not force you to work with an attorney following a catastrophic injury accident. You have the right to represent your own case, be that in private negotiations or throughout a civil trial. That said, trying to take on civil litigation while contending with physical losses can make it harder for you to get the compensation you deserve.
You may also be missing some essential information about the court system should you try to navigate it without proper understanding. That lack of information can compromise your case more so than your injuries do.
With that in mind, working with a catastrophic injury lawyer in Plainfield can be a boon to your case. You can focus on getting the medical attention you need while an experienced attorney investigates the circumstances that led to your accident. We can lean on our network of professional connections and our courtroom experience to build you a strong case.
Vaughan & Vaughan Makes It Easy to Get Justice Without Worrying About Your Bills
Many parties find themselves reluctant to work with a personal injury lawyer because they’re afraid of what legal representation may cost. Vaughan & Vaughan recognizes those fears and works to soothe them. Our team specifically operates on contingency to help you and your loved ones avoid untimely legal fees.
By working on contingency, our team swears to fight until we win your case – and if we don’t win, we don’t get paid. You can learn more about our contingency fee agreements and their impact on your recovery time during an initial case evaluation.
Working With Vaughan & Vaughan to Overcome a Catastrophic Injury
How do you get your life back on track after a catastrophic injury accident? More often than not, these accidents force survivors like you to learn how to live with new limitations. You may find yourself working with a series of professionals in an effort to regain lost mobility or mold your old responsibilities around your new limitations.
It’s not fair that you’re the one left with lifelong losses when someone else caused your accident. Vaughan & Vaughan recognizes that and wants you to get justice for the freedoms you’ve lost. That’s why our catastrophic injury attorneys in Plainfield want to help you pursue a personal injury claim in civil court.
You can meet with our team immediately following a catastrophic injury to discuss your best path forward. Our team can stay on top of your case’s statute of limitations, thereby ensuring that you have a chance to bring your losses to a judge’s attention.
Contact us to schedule your free, no-obligation case evaluation today.
