Some injuries don’t sound too bad until it happens to you. Whiplash is a great example. The injury’s name isn’t all that frightening, at least until you start experiencing the pain and discomfort. Whiplash injuries are common in vehicle accidents, even minor ones.
It doesn’t take a lot of sudden jerky movements to suffer a whiplash injury. If you’re dealing with whiplash, you’re probably wondering about compensation. So, what types of compensation for whiplash injuries are available for accident victims in New York state?
Types of Compensation Available for Whiplash Injuries
When your neck is suddenly thrown back and forth like from the force generated in a car accident, whiplash commonly occurs. The injury surprisingly isn’t considered all that severe, but the discomfort can be excruciating. Recovering from a whiplash injury can also put your life on hold.
Like all other states, New York lets accident victims file personal injury claims to recover compensation. This brings us to the question you’re probably eagerly waiting for an answer, what types of compensation are available?
Economic Damages
Pretty much every personal injury claim lists economic damages. These are things like your medical expenses, property damage costs, and possibly lost income. Before you start gathering up your past pay stubs, not everyone can claim lost wages. You must show your whiplash injury is severe enough to prevent you from returning to work. If you can provide medical evidence, go ahead and list your lost current income.
You’re going to need to supply proof for every economic damage on your insurance claim. This applies whether you’re filing a claim with your personal injury protection (PIP) provider or against the at-fault party.
The types of evidence required depend on your listed damages. If you’re not claiming lost wages the insurance adjuster doesn’t care about reviewing your past pay stubs. You get the idea. You’re going to need your medical records to prove you’re suffering from whiplash. Bills, receipts, and estimates usually take care of proving your property damage. Just because it’s a whiplash injury claim doesn’t mean you should skip over any other economic damage.
Non-Economic Damages
Your non-economic damages typically include things like mental anguish, pain, and suffering just to name a few examples. But since your pain and suffering don’t exactly come with a price tag to work off of figuring out their value takes a bit of conscious thought and effort. However, this doesn’t mean you can just pull a random number out of the air—instea,d you use either the multiplier or per diem method to calculate what you’re rightfully owed.
Both of these formulas are relatively easy to use. You’re going to need to know the value of your economic losses before you can get started. The multiple method assigns your whiplash injury a number ranging from 1.5 to 5. This number represents your degree of pain. Multiply your economic losses by your pain’s assigned number.
The per diem method is a little different. You’re counting the number of days you experienced pain from your injuries. Take this number and multiply it by your average daily pay. Yep, it’s time to drag out your past pay stubs.
You’re probably going to get different totals for each method and it’s okay. A good tip is to use both methods. Submit the higher total with your whiplash injury claim. If the insurance adjuster rejects your initial claim, you’re ready with a counteroffer. Sometimes it’s enough to speed up the claim process.
Punitive Damages
You’re probably wondering if you can claim punitive damages and the answer is always no. This is one of the few times there isn’t an exception to the law. Punitive damages are special. Accident victims can’t claim these losses, however, you can request a punitive damage award from the judge and/or jury. Yep, since the court’s responsible for handing out punitive damages, you’re going to need to file a lawsuit.
So, instead of working your way through the claim process, you’re heading straight to civil court with a whiplash injury lawsuit. If your personal injury attorney can prove your accident is caused by gross negligence, there’s a chance you may qualify to receive punitive damages. Your next question is probably asking if New York caps punitive damage amounts and the answer’s no. The amount you receive in punitive damages is entirely up to the court.
Factors Affecting Potential Compensation Amounts
Like about 12 other states or so, New York follows no-fault insurance laws. Don’t worry, this usually doesn’t impact potential compensation amounts but it can complicate the process. Your first step is filing a claim with your insurance provider. Your auto insurance should take care of most or all of your property damage costs, at least up to your policy’s cap. If you’re only carrying limited liability insurance, hold off on claiming your property damage costs.
Your PIP (personal injury protection) takes care of most of your medical costs, along with lost income. Once again a cap usually applies. If your damages don’t hit the policy’s cap, PIP pays up to 80% of your medical costs and lost wages.
Now, it’s time to turn to the at-fault party’s insurance provider. With this claim, you can list damages not covered by your insurance like your remaining medical expenses. PIP also doesn’t take care of non-economic losses so now’s your chance to recover compensation. If you can prove negligence, there shouldn’t be a problem filing a whiplash injury claim against the at-fault party’s insurance provider.
So far it can seem like you can recover pretty much all your damages, but pure comparative negligence may apply. New York is a pure comparative negligence state and this can impact your compensation amount. Pure comparative negligence allows for more than one party to be responsible for the accident. As long as you’re not more than 99% responsible, you should be able to file an injury claim. The bad news is your compensation is going to be reduced by your percentage of fault.
Even though receiving compensation for a whiplash injury often isn’t all that complicated, it’s still a good idea to talk to an experienced New York accident attorney. Your attorney can help you navigate the claim process and prove fault if it becomes a question.