Summer and fall are both great times for people to head out and see the country in an RV, a large recreational vehicle that doubles as a home while people take vacations on the road. While these vehicles can be incredible options for people who would like to take their homes with them on vacation, they also require an additional level of understanding and driving responsibilities when compared with a passenger vehicle. Most states do not require any additional licensing in order for someone to operate an RV or motorhome, meaning that you may be sharing the road with people operating these massive vehicles with little or no more experience than you when it comes to driving such a complex piece of machinery.
Being involved in an accident with someone driving an RV can result in catastrophic injuries for those in the smaller vehicle, and the recovery process from the resulting injuries can be extremely frustrating if you were hurt in an accident that someone else caused due to negligence or recklessness on their behalf. When you file a claim with the other driver’s insurance company, you can be certain that this experience will be frustrating as the agent assigned to your case attempts to take every opportunity to limit the amount that you receive in a settlement.
Contact Balkin Law Group Injury Lawyers, LLP For a Free Initial Consultation
The sooner you are partnered with an experienced personal injury lawyer, such as an attorney on the team at Balkin Law Group Injury Lawyers, LLP, the sooner you can focus on your recovery without the added stress of trying to work with an insurance company. Having an attorney who is representing your case means that you are coming to the negotiation table with an experienced legal representative who is fighting for your rights. Insurance companies focus almost exclusively on saving as much money as possible by limiting the amount that they pay out on any given claim, and your claim will be no different. Remember that you are working with a company with years, if not decades, of well-honed best practices specifically for this purpose.
Read more below about the benefits of working with an attorney through your insurance claims process following an RV accident, and contact us as soon as possible to schedule a free initial consultation. During your consultation, we will be able to discuss the specifics of your RV accident and give you a better sense of the type of support that we can offer while you navigate through this complicated time in your life.
Why Hire an Attorney After an RV Accident?
When you file an insurance claim, the first thing that the insurance company will do is assign a claims adjuster to your case who will investigate all details of your accident over the coming days and weeks before making you a settlement offer. Ostensibly, auto insurance is meant to provide victims with fair compensation to victims in an accident caused by a policyholder, but the reality is that the insurance company prioritizes settling claims for as little as possible while also waiving the victim’s rights to seek any additional compensation or take additional legal action after the initial, low settlement.
Every communication that you have with the insurance company will be scrutinized by the adjuster to identify every innocuous statement that you have made that could possibly be used to pin additional fault on you, diminish the severity of your injuries, or any other tactic that will result in a lesser award. At the same time, this process can be stressful as you fight for what you are truly entitled to, and stress is shown to have a significant impact on the recovery process for physical wounds. The reality is that hiring an attorney to keep your legal stress low will assist you on your path towards recovery.
Calculating Damages After an RV Accident
The question of damages—the money that a victim is owed after a personal injury—is at the center of your personal injury claim, and can be complicated in order to reach an accurate amount that you can then negotiate for an out-of-court settlement with the insurance company. However, it takes an intimate knowledge of compensatory damages in order to build a comprehensive list of the damages that you have suffered, and then successfully defend and negotiate those calculations.
Compensatory damages are divided into two distinct parts: economic and non-economic damages, that address two very different aspects of the same accident.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the basis of your settlement and seek repayment for measurable financial impacts from the accident such as medical bills, recovery costs, injury-related expenses, and more. In addition, all of your income-based impacts such as lost wages and diminished earnings will be included. There are many other economic damages that you will be able to explore with the help of your attorney, as well.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are much more complicated to calculate for a personal injury claim since they attempt to assign a dollar amount to impacts that do not have a measurable financial value associated with them. They include things like pain and suffering, as well as the trauma from the experience of being in an accident with an RV. There are many different methods of translating these emotional, physical, and mental damages into dollar amounts, but should be calculated by an experienced attorney who will be able to negotiate on your behalf for a fair settlement.