If you are unlucky enough to slip and fall due to poor maintenance or get into a motorcycle accident caused by the other driver, Louisiana law allows you to get compensation from the liable party. The law allows several types of compensation, depending on the circumstances of the accident.
The most important type of compensation available from a personal injury claim is economic damages, also known as out-of-pocket expenses. Without this type of compensation, you could end up in financial distress after an accident that wasn’t your fault.
Identifying Out-Of-Pocket Expenses
Before you can get compensation for out-of-pocket expenses, you need to identify them. Some of these expenses are easier to identify than others. For example, if you are injured in an accident, the insurance company covering your bills expects that you will have medical expenses, and any offer of compensation will usually take those bills into account.
However, some medical bills can slip through the cracks if you aren’t careful. For example, for the same treatment, you might receive a hospital bill, a bill from a pharmacy, and a doctor’s bill. If you aren’t diligent about preserving these bills and sharing them with the insurance company, you could receive less compensation than you paid for services rendered.
Similarly, you want to preserve records of any expenses related to your injuries. Did you take a taxi to the hospital because your injury prevented you from driving? That is an out-of-pocket expense that you can claim. However, the insurance company will only pay for it if you can prove with a receipt that the bill exists and provide medical proof that it was necessary.
Identifying these expenses can be tricky if you don’t fully understand the law or the rules of the insurance policy. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you preserve necessary documentation and will determine what expenses qualify and what don’t.
Statutory Limitations On Out-Of-Pocket Expenses
In most situations, there are no limits on how much compensation you can receive for out-of-pocket expenses. For example, if you suffered a serious injury that requires several surgeries costing millions of dollars — and if you have to modify your home with mobility devices — all of those expenses can be recovered from an insurance claim or lawsuit.
However, Louisiana does limit how much money you can receive for certain types of claims. If you file a medical malpractice claim in Louisiana, all compensation from that claim is limited to $500,000, with one exception. You can continue to receive compensation beyond that limit exclusively for future medical expenses.
A similar law applies to any lawsuit against the state or local government. Once again, damages are capped at $500,000, with the same exception that you can continue to receive compensation for future medical expenses.
Difference Between Out-Of-Pocket Expenses And Non-Economic Damages
The best indication that an expense is out-of-pocket is that you can produce a receipt for it. All of those medical bills, transportation costs, and other miscellaneous expenses are listed on paper or digitally. This documentation makes it easy to calculate the precise value of an out-of-pocket expense.
The same is true for losses, though they can be a little more complicated. For example, if you miss work time, you can produce receipts from previous days or weeks you worked showing how much you would have earned.
While future expenses don’t have receipts yet, they can be similarly calculated. For example, if you require physical therapy for five years, you can show a bill for some physical therapy you have already had and then multiply that by the number of future sessions you expect to participate in.
However, non-economic damages are different. No matter what you do, you can never produce a receipt or even a theoretical receipt for this type of harm.
Non-economic damages represent compensation that you receive for pain resulting from an injury. This could be for physical pain from something like a broken bone or emotional pain due to loss of companionship after suffering a gruesome scar.
These damages are often calculated as a multiple of any out-of-pocket expenses you endured. This means that even when you are receiving compensation that isn’t directly related to out-of-pocket expenses, the value of those expenses may influence how much you receive.
Contact A Personal Injury Lawyer In Louisiana Today
If you have been seriously injured by another party’s negligence, Louisiana law allows you to get compensation for any expenses related to that injury. Contact The Law Office of John W. Redmann, L.L.C today at (504) 500-5000 for a free consultation and to learn how an experienced personal injury lawyer can help you get the compensation you need to recover from your injury.
