When seeking compensation after a car accident, most people consider their medical expenses and time off work to be their biggest expenses. It’s true that the cost of hospitalization and related treatment can quickly add up. For example, the average cost of a three-day hospital stay is approximately $30,000.
However, lost wages and hospital bills are just two of the many losses that can occur in a car accident, and they may not even be the most costly losses you experience. Failing to account for all of the ways your car accident can impact you financially can lead you to accept a settlement that doesn’t meet your needs.
Working with a knowledgeable Ohio car accident lawyer is the most effective way to ensure that you receive fair compensation for all your losses. Your car accident attorney can also help you evaluate potential settlement offers in light of your specific needs.
4 Unseen Expenses Following a Car Accident
One of your car accident lawyer’s main duties will be to pinpoint the nature and extent of the losses you’ve suffered as a result of your accident. They’ll then work with you to come up with a compensation figure that’s appropriate for your circumstances.
While many accident victims overlook the following four losses, they’re just as deserving of compensation as lost wages and medical bills. Make sure to give them due consideration when calculating your entitled compensation.
1. Future Medical Expenses
If you sustained a traumatic brain injury or other serious injury, your initial treatment in the hospital may be just the beginning of a long and expensive recovery process. Over the coming weeks or months, you may need additional procedures to heal completely. In other cases, making a full recovery may require multiple therapy sessions.
Alternatively, following a severe wreck, you could be left with a permanent condition requiring ongoing care and management. Having a home health assistant visit you regularly or forcing a family member to quit their job to care for you can also cause your family to incur tremendous costs.
Depending on how long you need ongoing care and treatment, the costs of your future medical expenses can easily eclipse those of your initial hospital stay. Your car accident lawyer will have the knowledge and resources to accurately estimate how much compensation you’ll need to address these projected expenses.
2. Lost Earning Potential
Another future expense that’s easy to overlook is your lost earning potential. Partial disability following a car wreck may not keep you from working entirely. However, it may limit your ability to do certain kinds of tasks or work certain hours, which can have a long-term impact on the amount of money you’re able to make.
For example, imagine that you’re a professional driver. Following an accident in your private vehicle, you now suffer seizures. Because of this, you’re no longer able to work as a driver and must find another job.
However, the work you’re able to perform likely doesn’t pay as much as your driving job did. This illustrates one of the subtlest ways a car crash can impact the amount of money you’re capable of earning going forward.
The severity of this loss will depend on a few factors, including your age, the industry you worked in before the accident, and what jobs are available to you, given your limitations. The younger you are or the more limitations you face, the larger the loss will likely be.
To continue with the example above, let’s say you made $100,000 per year as a driver. You were 45 when your accident happened and could have reasonably expected to work another 15 years. The job you hold now only pays $30,000 per year.
In light of these factors, your lost earning potential would be $70,000 per year for the next 15 years — a significant sum.
3. Rental Cars or Other Transportation
If your car is in the shop for repairs, you’ll need to find another way to get around and see to your various responsibilities.
You’ll need to get to and from work, and if you have kids, they may need to be dropped off and picked up at school. If your insurance company doesn’t offer you a rental car benefit, these transportation costs can quickly add up.
Renting a car costs about $100 a day, on average. You can expect to pay more if you need a larger vehicle for work or family obligations. This figure doesn’t include optional add-ons like supplemental liability insurance or any accommodating devices you might need. Depending on your choices, a rental could cost you nearly $3,000 per month.
Not all car insurance companies cover rental car expenses, and your repair shop may not have a loaner vehicle for you to use. That means you could be left to cover the full cost of your rental vehicle. If you feel this might be too great of an expense, talk to your car accident lawyer about possible ways to mitigate this cost through compensation.
4. Mental Harm and Counseling
In some cases, a traumatic car accident can leave lasting mental scars that affect your ability to live your life. A serious accident might require you to seek counseling and other mental health services on an ongoing basis after the event. As you work through your unseen wounds, your ability to enjoy life can diminish.
For example, you may be left with post-traumatic stress disorder after an injury-causing accident. As a result, you might experience a panic attack every time you get into your vehicle or travel the road where your crash occurred.
Symptoms like these can necessitate drastic alterations to your daily routine, which can lead to other mental health concerns, including depression.
While the cost of counseling is easy to determine, the damage done to your peace of mind and quality of life is more difficult to quantify.
When you discuss this loss with your car accident lawyer, they can advise you on an appropriate amount of compensation to seek. They can also work with you to gather supporting evidence to strengthen your claim.
Contact Schiff & Associates for Guidance and Support After a Crash
At Schiff & Associates, we pride ourselves on providing exceptional representation to car accident injury victims in Columbus and across Ohio. We’re dedicated to helping our clients recover the financial support they need to move on from their injuries and related losses.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, contact us today to speak with one of our experienced car accident attorneys.