Being injured in a car accident can be devastating. The physical pain that you may have to fight to overcome every day can take a toll on your body and mind. Beyond the physical pain, your injuries and the trauma associated with your experience of being involved in a car accident can cause you debilitating emotional distress. While people may be able to see your physical injuries, you wear the emotional scars within. Sight unseen, your emotional distress can have just as much of an impact on your life as the physical accident-related injuries.
You can be compensated for your emotional distress after a car accident. The person who harmed you and caused you to be in emotional distress should be held responsible. The St. Louis car accident attorneys of OnderLaw have nearly twenty years of experience helping car accident victims obtain compensation for their emotional distress. For help pursuing compensation for your emotional distress, call OnderLaw today or contact us online for a free consultation. We’ll review your claim and let you know how we can help.
Emotional distress is also known as mental anguish. After being in a car accident, the trauma of that event and your injuries can send you into a tailspin of emotional turmoil. Emotional distress can be so severe that it affects your ability to work or enjoy the things that you used to enjoy doing.
Emotional distress isn’t a visible injury. Proving emotional distress will require you to provide documentation regarding your injuries and the car accident.
Documentation showing the severity of your physical injuries can also show the extent of your emotional distress. Sustaining severe injuries in a car accident is not only physically painful, but it can also cause significant emotional trauma. Additionally, your recovery journey for those injuries, including all of the medical treatment you may need, can cause you a great deal of emotional distress. Your medical records can show how severe your injuries were, the extent of the treatment you needed, and any potential surgeries and procedures you had to undergo as a result of your injuries.
The financial strain associated with your injuries could also cause you emotional distress. Many car accident victims are faced with expensive medical bills and lost wages and income from having to miss work due to their injuries. Having to deal with this financial burden could lead to further emotional distress, which in turn could manifest itself physically. Documentation of any sleep disturbances or other physical symptoms of emotional distress can help prove your claim or case for compensation.
Being in a car accident, alone, can lead to emotional distress. You may suffer from mental health disorders as a result of the accident, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you’ve sought treatment, such as medication, from your doctor, attended psychological therapy, or received psychiatric care, that will be documented in your medical records and can be used as evidence to support your claim.
Additionally, expert testimony from medical professionals and psychologists could help show that the seriousness of your injuries is likely to have caused you emotional distress. Even testimony from your loved ones can be evidence of the emotional impact that the accident and your injuries have had on you.
It may also be helpful to keep a journal, writing in it each day how you’re feeling mentally and emotionally. Real-time documentation of how the accident and your injuries affected your day-to-day life can be strong evidence of your emotional distress.
You may be entitled to receive several types of compensation, called damages, for your injuries. The person who caused the car accident, or their insurance company, would be responsible for compensating you.
For emotional distress, you may be entitled to receive non-economic damages. Non-economic damages also cover:
Additionally, you may also be entitled to receive economic damages for your physical injuries and damage that was done to your property in the car accident. Economic damages cover:
In rare cases, punitive damages may be awarded. These damages are intended to punish the person responsible for causing the car accident.
Unlike proving financial losses related to your injuries, it’s harder to calculate how much your emotional distress has cost you. You may not even be able to place a value on your own emotional distress because it has been so consuming for you.
Your attorney can assess the value of your claim in its entirety, including your emotional distress. Once the assessment is made, your attorney can negotiate with the insurance company to obtain that amount of compensation. If your case is taken to court, there is no cap on what you may be compensated for your emotional distress in Missouri.
The attorneys at OnderLaw are personal injury case experts in St. Louis. We have decades of experience helping those who have been injured in accidents that were caused by the negligent actions of others get the compensation they deserve. We’ve fought against wrongdoers, insurance companies, and big businesses from conference rooms to courtrooms to help our clients get over $4 billion in compensation. Our success and hard work have been recognized by leading organizations in the legal industry. We prioritize the needs of every one of our clients and strive to pursue the justice they deserve.
Have you been injured in a car accident that was due to someone else’s actions? Have you suffered emotional distress as a result? You have the right to seek compensation for what you’ve had to endure. Call the experienced car accident attorneys of OnderLaw today or contact us online. The initial consultation is free.
