How Much Do You Get for Whiplash After a New Hampshire Car Accident?
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that car crashes frequently cause whiplash, noting that this is a “public health concern.” If you’re recovering from whiplash after a New Hampshire car accident, you might be curious about potential compensation. Will this be enough to pay your medical bills and cover your lost wages? Will you receive additional compensation for pain & suffering? These are questions you might want to raise with your personal injury attorney.
Understanding Economic Damages for Whiplash in New Hampshire
To determine the potential value of your claim, you first need to consider your economic damages. These include your missed income and your medical bills. This will form the foundation of your claim. Your attorney will look at your medical records to determine whether the medical evidence supports that the care received was due to your car crash. If the treatment is related, you can use your medical records to support your claim and pursue compensation for the medical bills and other damages, such as pain and suffering.
Different people may experience different economic damages due to whiplash. It all depends on how much work you’ll miss, what kind of treatment your doctors recommend, and your income. For example, someone earning $500 a week could only claim $500 in missed earnings for one week of missed work. However, someone who earns $4,000 per week could claim $4,000 for the same amount of missed work.
Can I Claim Non-Economic Damages for Whiplash in New Hampshire?
Your missed wages and medical bills might be covered, but is that all you’ll receive after experiencing whiplash? Will you also receive some kind of additional “payout?” First, you should know that New Hampshire is an “at-fault” or “tort” state. This is important because an at-fault system does not limit your ability to pursue “non-economic damages.” Non-economic damages include pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. These damages are separate and in addition to your economic damages.
If you successfully pursue non-economic damages for your whiplash, you should receive additional compensation beyond the money you’ll need to cover your medical bills and lost income. This compensation is supposed to provide closure for experiences like depression, anxiety, trauma, and pain related to your car accident. You can think of this as payment for things like the time out of our life for medical appointment and for waking up each morning with pain in your neck.
The real question is how much your total claim will be worth. This number is going to be different for different people (the same injury could impact different people in different ways), and for different injuries (an injury that resolves in a few days is very different than one that requires months of physical therapy). An attorney experienced in these types of case can review the records, bills, and the impacts of the case, then advise you as to what the value might be.
Can a New Hampshire Car Accident Lawyer Help After Whiplash?
A New Hampshire car accident lawyer may be able to help if you’re recovering from whiplash. First, your lawyer can help you understand how much compensation you might receive. Your lawyer can then help you pursue this compensation. Learn more about your specific situation by speaking with Manning Zimmerman & Oliveira, PLLC today.
Source:
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11398816/
