Costs of Injuries in Nevada
On average, unintentional personal injury leads to more than $19,000 in medical expenses for victims in Nevada. However, more serious accidents can lead to much more disastrous consequences and significantly higher medical bills. While medical bills and lost wages are easy to quantify, provided all the paperwork is in order, the loss of quality of life can be a more difficult thing on which to place a dollar figure.
Non-Economic Damages
Quality of life can mean many different things; driving a car, exercising or even doing household chores can all be included here. If you are in an accident, the injuries sustained can have a permanent effect on your ability to do the things you used to do every day. These are known as non-economic damages.
Emotional anguish, loss of consortium, or even the inability to cook dinner for your children fall under this umbrella. If you led an active lifestyle and can no longer play sports in any way, then compensation can be sought for the loss of what once was a normal life for you. If your children lose the guidance and support they once had from you, then your family can seek compensation for that as well.
An experienced attorney can fight on your behalf for fair compensation when non-economic damages are apparent. Broken bones and lacerations will heal, but the lasting damages can remain long after the cast has come off. Therefore, your personal injury lawyer will wait until you have achieved maximum recovery to file the claim. That way undiscovered injuries caused by the accident will reveal themselves in full, thereby allowing you to be compensated for them.
Nevada Personal Injury Laws
The statute of limitations for filing a personal injury claim in Nevada is two years from the time the injury initially took place. If the case is filed after the two-year limit, a hearing will be necessary to determine whether your claim is valid beforehand.
Nevada operates under the modified comparative fault rule. If you as the victim are awarded $10,000 in damages in a personal injury claim but are found to be 25 percent at fault, you would only receive $7,500 of that. The modified provision means that if you are found to be 50 percent or more at fault, then you will not be entitled to seek any damages.
There are caps placed on how much compensation you can receive in a single personal injury claim. Damages directly related to medical expenses and lost wages have no cap, but “pain and suffering” damages have a $350,000 cap in medical malpractice cases. Other cases, such as a car accident caused by a negligent driver, can attach punitive damages to the compensatory damages. Whether there is a cap of any sort depends upon the type of claim.
When it comes to submitting a claim against a government agency, tort limits can significantly decrease the number of situations in which a claim would be accepted. The employee who caused your injury must have been acting within the scope of employment for the agency to be held liable for the employee’s actions.
Get Help
Whether by carelessness, negligence or even intentional design, personal injury accidents are one of the most trying incidents you can face. In addition to dealing with the physical pain and emotional trauma of the accident itself, a victim will have to contend with medical expenses, potentially painful rehabilitation, lost wages from being unable to work, and much more. Fortunately, our Reno injury attorneys at De Castroverde Law Group can help.
Call 702-222-9999 to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case.