Motorcycle accidents can cause major injuries and big financial losses. Being hurt in New York City can bring unique challenges, as the living cost is really high. Victims will struggle to pay their medical bills along with other expenses. Luckily, they can file a claim and recover their losses. But a lot of motorcycle accident victims don’t know that when they file a claim, some damages can be left out, which means they get much less compensation than they deserve. To ensure you don’t shortchange yourself, this article discusses some commonly omitted damages in a motorcycle accident claim.
When involved in such an accident, New York motorcycle accident lawyers can help you figure out all the losses you’re owed. If you don’t get these important damages, it can put a lot of stress on your finances and make it hard to pay for things that should have been covered by your payout.
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Commonly Omitted Damages in Motorcycle Accident Claims
Most motorcycle accident claims are about simple costs, like medical bills and lost wages. However, some important types of damages are often missed, which can leave people financially disadvantaged. Don’t leave anything out; here’s what you should include:
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Loss of enjoyment of life is one of the non-economic damages in motorcycle crash claims that isn’t talked about enough. In addition to being hurt physically, patients often can’t do the things they used to love, like sports, hobbies, or even just spending time with family.
People who ride motorcycles for the freedom and sense of excitement that it gives them can be hit especially hard by this effect. When you leave out this damage, you fail to get compensation for this major emotional and psychological trauma.
Future Medical Costs
A lot of accident claims don’t include future medical costs, but they do include current medical costs. People who get hurt in motorcycle accidents often need to keep getting treatments like physical therapy, follow-up surgeries, or medicine for the rest of their lives.
This is especially true for people who get serious injuries like spinal damage or traumatic brain injuries. If you don’t include these future costs in your claim, you might have to pay for medical care out of your own pocket after the settlement is over.
Disfigurement and Scarring
A lot of the time, motorcycle accidents leave people with serious injuries that leave them scarred or disfigured for life. These obvious injuries can change a person’s life by lowering their self-esteem and causing long-lasting mental stress.
Disfigurement compensation should cover both the scars on a person’s body and the emotional toll they have on their mental health. However, many cases don’t include this, which means the long-term effects on the victim’s life aren’t taken into account.
Loss of Consortium
Loss of consortium is a type of non-economic damage that looks at how an accident changes the victim’s bond with their family or spouse. If someone is seriously hurt, they might not be able to offer companionship, love, or even keep up a sexual relationship.
This could make their marriage or family life difficult. This very personal loss isn’t always included in claims, even though it’s clear that it puts a lot of mental stress on family and friends.
Home Modifications and Assistive Devices
If someone is seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident, they may need to make changes to where they live. This can mean buying assistive devices like motorized wheelchairs or building wheelchair ramps and stairlifts.
It can be very expensive to make these changes, and if you don’t include them in your claim, you may have to pay for them yourself, even though they were caused by the accident.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages aren’t always awarded in motorcycle accident cases, but they can be sought when the person who caused the accident was especially careless or malicious. For instance, punitive damages may be appropriate if the driver who caused the crash was drunk or driving aggressively.
These losses are meant to punish the person who did wrong and make them less likely to do it again. A lot of people don’t know they can get punitive damages, though, so they don’t claim a lot of money in compensation.
