Negligent drivers pose a risk of serious harm both to themselves and everyone on the road with them, including and especially pedestrians. Because they do not have any protection from safety features like airbags or even the frame of the vehicle around them, people on foot involved in traffic accidents suffer more severe injuries compared to everyone else in the wreck, which means they also suffer much more severe financial and psychological losses.
Civil compensation alone cannot completely erase all the trauma inflicted by a pedestrian collision, but demanding fair recovery with a skilled pedestrian accident attorney’s help can still be vital to minimizing the negative impacts that this incident will have on your life. Here are some of the damages in Bloomfield pedestrian accidents that the team at Fredson Statmore Bitterman, LLC may be able to help you pursue restitution for.
Recovering Economic and Non-Economic Losses
Given how serious the injuries that pedestrian crashes often inflict in Bloomfield can be, it is especially important when filing suit over this type of incident to account for both economic and non-economic damages that directly result from it. It is important to seek reimbursement not just for objective financial losses like medical bills and lost work income but also for subjective personal losses like physical pain, emotional anguish, and psychological trauma.
It is vital to demand compensation in advance for damages that have not yet fully appeared by the time the legal process begins but are reasonably expected to impact the injured person in the years to come as a result of their accident. For example, if someone becomes permanently paralyzed after a negligent driver strikes them, they would likely have grounds to demand restitution for both emergency medical expenses and the expected costs of long-term rehabilitative and therapeutic care, as well as for things like permanent loss of earning capacity and lost enjoyment of life.
Do Punitive Damages Factor Into Pedestrian Crash Claims?
In addition to the compensatory damages mentioned above, the court will sometimes award punitive damages to people injured in Bloomfield pedestrian accidents. However, the court rarely awards these damages and only as a direct punishment for a defendant engaging in willful misconduct, fraud, or extreme disregard for public safety, such as driving while extremely impaired by alcohol or drugs.
Furthermore, state law caps the value of punitive damages in personal injury cases at either $350,000 or five times the total value of compensatory damages that a court awards, whichever is more. An accident lawyer can go into further detail about how these damages work and when they might be available during a free initial consultation.
Learn More About Damages in Pedestrian Accidents from a Bloomfield Attorney
No one deserves to suffer any kind of injury solely because of another person’s reckless or careless actions, especially not through a high-speed traffic collision with life-altering consequences. If you have been hurt through a pedestrian accident that was not your fault, the person who was to blame for that incident may be liable to pay for every form of harm their misconduct will ever cause you to experience. Contact us for a free case evaluation.
