A major part of filing a personal injury suit is proving damages. This means that when you ask for the amount that you are suing for, you have to be able to prove that you deserve it. You cannot simply toss out a number. Instead, each claim has to be itemized. In addition, you have to prove that the accident caused the damage. Here are a couple things that you can use to prove damages.
1. Medical Bills
Medical bills are one of the most common ways to prove injury. This is because a medical bill can explain exactly what caused the injury and how much it cost to correct it. When you go to the doctor after an accident, make sure that they report in their notes that you came in due to some sort of accident. You can explain to them what happened and make sure that they take detailed notes about how they treated you and why.
After you start receiving the bills for all your medical procedures, make sure that you keep them together. You can't add anything to the suit that was preexisting – make sure that you keep track of what was caused by the accident and what was not.
2. Pay Stubs and Tax Forms
Another common thing to include in the lawsuit is lost wages. This means that if the accident caused you to miss work, or to be terminated from your job, you need to prove it. One way to do this is to compare pay stubs from months before the accident to months following the accident. If the court can see that you made significantly less since the accident, you might be able to recover that in damages.
You might also need to get your employer to sign an affidavit saying that you missed work due to physical restraints from the accident.
3. Mental Health Bills
A lot of people experience a great deal of emotional pain after an accident. If you had to get therapy to help deal with depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you might be able to recoup the costs.
Once again, you will need to prove that there was no preexisting condition. If you were already seeing a therapist for depression, you might not be able to get reimbursement after the accident. This is because it would appear that the accident didn't cause the depression.
These are just 3 ways to prove damages in a personal injury suit. For more help, speak with lawyers like Dreyer & Dreyer Attorneys At Law.
