Damages in Virginia Pedestrian Accident Cases

If you have been involved in a pedestrian accident and are interested in filing a claim, the following is information you need to know regarding how damages are calculated. To learn more call and schedule a consultation with a Virginia pedestrian accident lawyer today.

Calculating Damages in a Pedestrian Accident Case

There are a variety of factors that are involved in calculating damages. For economic damages, medical bills are usually the starting point even if you have insurance that covers those bills. Additionally, lost wages are calculated by looking at your pay history through pay stubs or tax returns. The final type of economic damages that is often calculated is future earnings, which depends on how bad the injuries are and will often require opinions from an expert as to what the economics of your situation are. In these cases you will typically have an economist who projects future earning over your life-expectancy or sometimes a vocational rehabilitation expert’s testimony may be necessary to establish what jobs the injured person can do in their limited capacity.

In addition to these factors, a jury will use their common sense to determine if there are losses of the household services or a loss of society and companionship. There are all sorts of things that Virginia laws allow a a judge or a jury to take into consideration, and then they can use their own judgment. As long as they itemize their verdict laying out the damages, they can really take into account just about anything within reason.

Can You Recover Damages For Property?

The short answer is that yes, your property damage to something such as your bike can be included as a damage. If the case goes to trial, you could claim the damage there, but most of the time, property damage is resolved at an earlier point depending on the position that the at-fault party’s carrier takes and the value of the property. That value is one of the bigger problems because if it’s a bike it would depend on whether it was in good condition, how old the bike is, if it had been involved in prior accidents, costs of repairs and various other factors that determine how much the bike is actually worth. Those are costs that you should be able to recover. Whether or not you’re able to do so prior to resolving a bodily injury claim or not is going to be dependent on a lot of factors.

Other Factors That Determine Damages

Again, this is often fact specific, but typically, past and future medical bills that can be related to the injuries. Those are going to be recoverable. Any loss of wages that are a result of injuries should be recoverable. Pain and suffering, just like in any other personal injury case or the non-economic harms and losses such as disruption of your activities of daily living, as far as things that you are unable to do as a result of the injury. Frustration or interference of your leisure activities as well.

Anything that prevents you from living your life as you normally did before the accident, you can be compensated for.

Damages in Virginia Pedestrian Accident Cases