Unless you’ve been severely injured by another person in an accident that has disrupted your life before, you may believe that it’s only the accident victim who suffers. While the victim is the one who’s enduring pain, treatments, procedures, and perhaps even multiple surgeries, they aren’t the only one whose life has been affected. Post-accident suffering has a ripple effect that can negatively impact loved ones.
If you’ve been involved in an accident and have life-altering injuries, Contact Whitley Law Firm Personal Injury Attorneys. They can help to put you and your family’s lives back together during this difficult time. Your job is to recover from the accident. Theirs is to ensure that you’re fully compensated.
How a Personal Injury Case Affects Your Family
North Carolina is known for the Outer Banks, the Smoky Mountains, fried green tomatoes, and strong family ties. The bonds that hold a North Carolina family together can extend through a few different generations, and even those who aren’t blood relatives are treated as such. When one member of the family is injured by a neglectful act, sometimes the entire family can feel the effects in several different ways. There are three major ways that loved ones can be affected after an accident. Let’s take a look at each of them.
Added Family Responsibilities
After a severe accident, the victim may need quite a lot of assistance. This additional help could be short-term, or those with permanent disabilities may require assistance from family members for a lifetime. These could be as simple as driving the accident victim to and from medical appointments or they could be much more difficult and intimate. Sometimes, accident victims will need the assistance of family members in the following ways:
- Help with showering, bathing, and other personal hygiene care
- Assistance getting dressed
- Additional household chores like cooking, cleaning, or lawn care
- Taking on the responsibility of food shopping
- New responsibilities like driving the injured family member to appointments
Emotional Impact
The additional tasks and care that the accident victim will require can put more stress than normal on family members. Taking on additional chores and responsibilities can be time-consuming and may cause problems between relatives who may already have stressful and busy lives. This can affect family members in many different ways. While some may be more than willing to step in to help, others may feel resentful and overburdened.
Victims of a life-altering accident may go through some emotional changes that can also be stressful for the entire family. Common emotional and psychological issues some accident victims can suffer include:
- Depression
- Anxiety attacks
- PTSD
- Mental anguish
- Nightmares and other issues with sleeping
Financial Impact
Personal injury cases can take months to possibly years before they’re settled. Even the somewhat simple task of gathering the required evidence to prove negligence, injury, and damages can take longer than you’d expect. Unfortunately, some victims of accidents don’t have the luxury of unlimited cash while they’re recovering from their injuries. If they’re unable to work, that doesn’t mean that the bills stop coming in.
Accident victims who are the head of household and have family members who depend on them financially will soon feel the effects of the accident. Although most personal injury attorneys work for a contingency fee and won’t get paid until the case is settled, if the victim has been out of work or is unable to work, money will quickly become a problem.
How a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help
While you are on the mend and recovering from your injuries or adjusting to life with a permanent disability, your lawyer will be hard at work getting all of your ducks in a row so that you can prove your case and receive the best settlement possible. If the at-fault party’s insurance company has already contacted you about a settlement, it’s most likely not even close to what you deserve. This is one of the benefits of having legal representation.
Other than the usual things you’d expect to be covered when receiving an insurance company settlement like medical bills and loss of income, there are many other damages that you can claim. With your attorney’s help, you can fight to receive compensation for some non-economic damages like:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Scarring and disfigurement
Personal Injury Cases Affect More Than Just The Victim: Final Thoughts
Being injured by a negligent act can reach out much further than just the victim of the accident. If the injured person was the main breadwinner for the family, their dependant’s lives would be impacted. For those with severe and life-changing injuries, they may need their loved ones to take on more responsibilities than they had ever expected. A simple negligent act can affect so many lives.
To ensure that you’re compensated for every damage and hardship possible, it’s necessary to have an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side. Insurance companies will do everything in their power to limit liability and pay out as little as possible. Don’t get cheated out of what you deserve; consult with a North Carolina personal injury attorney today.
By Cheryl Roy