Car accident damages fall into two main categories:
Economic Damages
These include all expenses a car accident victim incurs and can prove with the help of invoices, bills, and financial statements. Common examples include the cost of car repairs, hospital bills, treatment costs, and lost wages.
Non-Economic Damages
These usually cover the emotional and personal losses that car accident victims incur. Due to the nature of these losses, they are much more difficult to assign values to. Some things that fall in this category are disfigurement, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship, and more.
It is important to note that Louisiana laws limit some of the amounts one can claim and recover as damages. For example, under State Legislature Revised Statutes Section 13:5106, the total damages recoverable after a car accident involving a government agency are subject to a limit of $500,000.
Car accident victims should contact a Baton Rouge car accident lawyer as soon as possible, for two reasons:
Under the Louisiana Civil Code, Title XXIV, art. 3492, the deadline for taking civil action in case of personal injury or property damage is one year.
Claimants who do not benefit from the advice of a Baton Rouge car accident lawyer often make mistakes. As a result, they fail to follow the necessary steps to secure their right to compensation.