Do You Need A Permanent Injury To Recover Damages For Your Injuries?

In some accidents, victims never fully recover. Their injuries, disability or pain, never fully go away. But for others, who are more fortunate, they will find that in time, their injuries go away completely, and they recover full function of whatever limitations they previously had.

So what if that happens? Can you still recover damages for the bills, expenses, pain, suffering, anxiety, and other consequences of an accident and injuries, even if you have completely recovered from your injuries?

The answer to that question is complex, and largely depends on the type of accident that you have.

Non-Car Accident Cases

For accidents that do not involve car accidents-nursing homes, falls, defective products, accidents on people’s properties, dog bites, malpractice, or any other number of types of personal injury cases—the answer is yes, you can recover for your damages, pain and suffering and everything else, even though you are fully recovered.

You should bear in mind that your ultimate recovery may be limited as you do not have a permanent disability, but of course, that may not be a bad thing—you’d much rather be healthy than get compensation because of a lifelong disability.

Car Accident Cases

Car accidents get a bit more complex.

As a general rule, to recover full damages in a car accident case, you will need to have a permanent injury. That doesn’t necessarily mean a severe injury, but there must be an injury that is not expected to ever fully and completely heal.

That’s because of the personal injury protection (PIP) laws that apply in most car accident cases. Our PIP laws make permanency a mandatory requirement to recovering damages for injuries.

This is one area where many defendants contest car accident cases. They may say that they were at fault, and may even admit that you were injured—they just will deny that you suffered any kind of permanent injury. Often, car accident cases come down to experts on both sides, arguing whether you have a permanent injury or not.

No Permanent Injury?

However, even if you do not have a permanent injury in a car accident case, you still can recover economic damages. Economic damages are damages or losses that are quantifiable, or which can be calculated or counted, or which have an actual, definitive value.

For example, things like lost wages, future lost wages, medical bills, future medical bills, incidental expenses, or other financial damages, are all economic in nature, and thus, can be recovered even if you do not have a permanent injury.

While this does not include non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, anxiety, depression, or loss of the quality of enjoyment of your life (things that don’t have a definitive value or “price tag” that can be calculated), at least the economic damages can be of some help to an accident victim.

Can you get compensation for your injuries? Ask us. Contact the Miami personal injury attorneys at Velasquez & Associates P.A. today.

Sources:

facs.org/advocacy/federal-legislation/liability/guide-to-liability-reform/ending-the-confusion/

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0627/Sections/0627.737.html