What Compensation Will My Auto Crash Lawyer Recover for Me?
Making you whole again
What Compensation Will My Missouri and St. Louis Auto Crash Lawyer Recover for Me?
When someone else injures you because they broke the rules of the road and did not care about your safety, you deserve a full financial recovery for all of your damages, not just the damage to your car and a visit to a Missouri or St. Louis emergency room. Car accident injuries can carry an immense physical and emotional toll and in order to be whole again you need fair and maximum compensation for all of them. In general, there are two types of damages you can receive in a personal injury case, economic damages and noneconomic damage. In some cases, you may also seek punitive damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are essentially compensation that can be objectively verified and do not change depending on how an insurance company or jury evaluates them. Your Burger Law auto crash lawyer will help you receive compensation for:
- Property damage (such as damage to your car)
- Lost wages
- Lost earning potential
- Medical expenses, past and future, including:
- A St. Louis or Missouri emergency room visit
- Medications (such as prescribed pain killers)
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Other doctor appointments
- Assistive devices such as crutches or a wheelchair
- In-home care
While in some cases where injuries are not too severe the valuation of economic damages is as easy as totaling medical bills, mechanics' bills and how much time you had to miss from work, more serious injuries can be much more complicated. For example, if you needed a hip replacement after your car accident, that will likely need to be replaced at some point in the future. Burger Law's auto crash lawyer team's network of St. Louis and Missouri medical and economic experts will calculate and demonstrate how often you will need a new hip replacement and how much it will cost, adjusting for inflation. If you need assistive devices such as a wheelchair, we will determine how much money you will need for those replacements. Similarly, if you were a construction worker and can now no longer safely lift more than 20 pounds, that will severely limit your ability to work in the future. Your Burger Law St. Louis and Missouri auto crash lawyer will make sure that you are compensated for every dime of the financial impact your injury has had on your life.
Noneconomic Damages
Noneconomic damages are hard to quantify, and often receiving maximum compensation for them will require the evaluation of a jury. They refer to the impact of your injuries on your emotional health and ability to enjoy life. Missouri Senate Bill 239 defines noneconomic damages as:
Your noneconomic damages will be higher if you sustain a "catastrophic personal injury," which Missouri Senate Bill 239 defines as:
- Quadriplegia, or losing function of all four limbs
- Paraplegia, or losing function of two limbs
- Loss of two or more limbs
- A brain injury that results in permanent cognitive impairment
- An injury that causes irreversible failure to one or more major organs
- An injury that results in legal blindness
Noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering are often difficult for a St. Louis or Missouri jury to know how to calculate. At Burger Law, our St. Louis auto crash lawyer team consistently hones its trial skills and knows how to win over juries. We help juries relate to you as a person and see exactly how devastating an impact your car accident injuries have had on your life. We will secure you full financial compensation for all of your noneconomic damages. You deserve maximum compensation for the full scope of the consequences you have experienced as a result of your injury.
Punitive Damages
A third type of damages is rarely awarded in personal injury and car accident claims. Punitive damages serve to punish the at-fault party and deter them from committing the same negligence again. Punitive damages are rare in Missouri and St. Louis personal injury cases. According to Missouri Senate Bill 591, to be awarded punitive damages your auto crash lawyer must:
prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant intentionally harmed the plaintiff without just cause or acted with a deliberate and flagrant disregard for the safety of others.
In most car accident cases it is difficult to prove that somebody intentionally harmed you. However, in cases of extreme recklessness such as drunk driving, they can often be awarded. We seek punitive damages when we sue drunk drivers so they know exactly how dangerous their actions were.
When you hire the Missouri and St. Louis auto crash lawyer at Burger Law, we stand by your side and insist that you collect complete compensation for every single one of your damages. We have over two decades of combined experience standing up to bullies like resistant insurance companies that do not want to pay you what you are owed. When the defendant refuses to see reason and will not agree to a fair settlement in negotiations, we take the fight to court and use our finely honed trial skills to get you the recovery you are entitled to. If you have been injured in a car accident because somebody else broke the rules of the road, call Burger Law immediately at (314) 500-HURT.
What Are Common Auto Crash Injuries?
What Are Common St. Louis and Missouri Auto Crash Injuries?
Your recovery will also depend in part on the severity of your injuries. More serious injuries that have a greater effect on your life will be compensated with a higher recovery. Some of the most common injuries we see are:
No matter how significant your injuries and how much they impact your daily life, you deserve a full financial recovery. At Burger Law, our St. Louis auto crash lawyer team does not just seek maximum compensation, we demand it. If someone else in St. Louis or Missouri broke the rules and you got hurt because of it, put your case in the capable and trustworthy hands of a Burger Law auto crash lawyer and let us protect your future.
The only St. Louis law firm you need
Cases We Win
Burger Law's Missouri personal injury car accident law firm based in St. Louis has a team of gifted litigators and trial lawyers with more than 70 years of combined experience practicing law and protecting the vulnerable and injured. We will fight to get you maximum compensation in any injury claim in Missouri, including the case types listed here. Click for more information.