New York Personal Injury Settlements: Damages You Can Receive

In New York, you can sue if someone harms you. You can sue a single person, or you can sue a corporation or other business entity. You can do so if you feel they hurt you, and you can prove that.

Lawyers call these lawsuits personal injury cases. Some attorneys do these cases exclusively since they’re common and lucrative. Your lawyer can get 30-40% of your settlement money, the cash the jury awards you if they find in your favor.

There are different damages you can receive if you pursue a New York personal injury lawsuit. We’ll talk about some of them now.

Emotional Distress

Separating fact from fiction in personal injury settlements becomes necessary. If you know what you can and can’t get before you sue someone, you can understand the money that might come your way by winning your case.

Some people don’t know whether you can receive money for nonphysical harm you sustain. In other words, they wonder about emotional distress and whether you can sue.

You can sue for emotional distress as part of your personal injury suit in New York. Maybe someone did something that traumatized you emotionally or psychologically, but they did not harm you physically.

You can certainly sue someone in these instances. It’s easier to prove physical than psychological harm, though. With psychological damage, you might have a mental health professional testify on the stand about your condition. That might convince the jury the person you’re suing should give you damages, but it may not.

Diminished Life Quality

You might also say you have diminished life quality and you’re suing someone for damages because of that. Maybe a company made a product that harmed you. Now, you can’t enjoy some activities you could before.

In the past, maybe you could throw a baseball around with your kids in the backyard. Now, you can’t do that. Perhaps you can’t have a physical relationship with your spouse anymore. Maybe you can’t walk or run because you must use a cane.

In these instances, you can prove relatively easily that the entity that harmed you reduced your life quality. You can probably get some damages from the defendant.

Physical Pain or Discomfort

Maybe you have chronic pain now because someone harmed you. Let’s say someone drove drunk and hit your car. Now, you have a debilitating back injury.

The doctors say you have no surgical option that will help you, so you must consume over-the-counter pain pills every day. You must do stretching exercises that help your back. Despite all that, you have ongoing pain that you can’t shake.

The jury can see that you have constant pain and discomfort, and they should reward you some damages for that. The defendant’s lawyer might counter that by saying you had a preexisting condition, or maybe they’ll claim you’re not in pain at all.

Diminished Earnings Potential

Maybe someone hurt you, and now, you have reduced mobility. We’ll use the car wreck scenario again. A drunk driver hit your vehicle, and now, you can’t work like you could before.

You had a job where you can’t work from home. You must physically go in and work, and now, you can’t do that. You must quit your job because of the injuries you sustained.

You now have diminished earning potential. Maybe you can get some other job in your field, but perhaps you must give up working in that industry entirely.

A jury should easily see that you should get some money for this. Your lawyer should win this lawsuit for you easily enough and get you some damages.

Medical Equipment Costs

Medical equipment gets expensive quickly. Following an accident that someone else caused, you may need medical supplies that get you through your day-to-day life.

You may also need physical therapy. You may need a live-in nurse in serious cases where someone hurt you badly. You might need medications, or you may need surgery. You may need some combination of these things.

That can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe your health insurance helps you somewhat, but you can also sue the person or entity who hurt you and collect damages to pay for all these things you need.

If you can prove any condition we mentioned, or you’re in one of the situations we’ve described, your lawyer should get you damages. You can’t have your old life back, but that money should still help you.