Brooklyn Car Accident Injury Attorneys

Lives can be instantly upended by accidents and injuries. During these challenging periods, car accident injury lawyers become crucial allies. They advocate for those injured by others' negligence, ensuring fair compensation. This article underscores the important role these lawyers play in assisting individuals with their claims and restoring normalcy.

Does My Car Accident Claim Cover Mental Health Therapy?

Injuries sustained in a car accident aren’t always physical. Often, injuries from a car accident are not visible. When psychological therapy is required to treat injuries after a car accident, a policyholder may wonder whether or not a car insurance company will cover therapy or a psychiatrist. Here’s what you need to know:

It Depends on the Policy Amount
Your insurance company is only liable for paying damages up to your policy amount. In Iowa, your medical payments coverage -- if you have it -- will pay for all medical expenses. Medical payments coverage is not required, and the limit is $5,000. Often, physical injuries alone are enough to exhaust this amount.

If the accident was the fault of the other driver, then that driver’s bodily injury liability coverage, which is required in a minimum amount of $20,000 per person, can pay for mental health therapy.

The Extent of Your Injuries and the Severity of the Accident
Assuming that the policy amount is great enough to cover the expense of mental health injuries, an insurance company most likely will pay for those expenses, assuming that they are reasonable for both the severity of the accident and the seriousness of your physical injuries. If mental health injuries appear too extreme for either, then a car insurance company may deny this part of the claim.

What Are My Other Options for Getting Mental Health Therapy Paid For?

If an insurance company refuses to pay for mental health therapy or if injuries are so severe that filing a claim with the insurance company will not yield enough damages, you have another option: You can file a personal injury lawsuit for damages. A personal injury lawsuit can yield damages for all forms of medical expenses, as well as damages for mental pain and emotional (and physical) suffering. A claim must be filed within two years under Iowa Code 614.1.

How an Attorney Can Help Recover Damages for Mental Health Costs

If you’re filing a claim with an insurance company, you’ll have to prove that your mental health injuries are significant enough to require treatment and that the insurance company should be responsible for paying for this expense. During this negotiation process, an attorney can be a key asset.

Legal Recourse After Suffering a Herniated Disc in an Iowa Car Accident

When a driver is in a car accident in Brooklyn that results in herniated discs, he or she can seek compensation for this injury from the at-fault driver’s insurance policy. Injured drivers can seek both economic and noneconomic damages but may face challenges proving causation and the extent of their damages.

Herniated Discs Symptoms and Prognosis
The spine consists of vertebrae and soft discs as well as the spinal cord. These discs act as a cushion for the vertebrae and help with flexibility. They are made of a hard covering (capsule) and a softer inner jelly-like substance (nucleus). A herniated disc occurs when the inner portion protrudes through a weak or damaged spot in the outer covering, pressing on nerves in the spinal column.

Doctors may first try to treat herniated discs with a combination of pain medications and physical therapy. If this doesn’t improve and manage the condition, the patient may have to undergo surgery to repair the damaged discs.

Surgeons can remove the protruding part of the disc or may remove the entire disc. If the entire disc is removed, the vertebrae have to be fused together or the surgeon has to insert a replacement disc in the gap. These procedures can result in months of recovery time in some cases.

Legal Recourse for Herniated Discs Caused by a Car Accident
If an injured driver can prove that a defendant was negligent and caused the accident and that the accident directly caused an injury, the driver may be entitled to compensation from the defendant or the defendant’s insurer. Negligence broadly means failing to use reasonable care to prevent harm to others, so evidence of such behavior is important if pursuing a claim or lawsuit. Injured drivers may claim both economic and non-economic damages related to herniated discs.

Economic damages include things like:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Expenses traveling to and from medical appointments

Non-economic damages include things like pain and suffering and emotional distress that arise from the accident.

Challenges to Proving a Case
Defendants may dispute that the accident directly caused the herniated discs and instead argue that the plaintiff already suffered from the herniated discs before the accident. In these cases, medical records from before and after the accident may demonstrate that the accident caused the herniated discs.

Iowa is a modified comparative fault state. This means that plaintiffs need to be 50 percent or less at fault in an accident to recover damages. Also, because the state follows a comparative fault theory, a plaintiff can only collect damages minus his or her proportion of fault. For example, if a claimant or plaintiff is 20 percent at fault in a $10,000 case, the claimant or plaintiff collects $8,000 from the defendant.

Drivers suffering from herniated discs caused by accidents that were no fault of their own should consult a lawyer. A lawyer can help drivers obtain compensation for their injuries by establishing the defendant’s fault and the extent of damages.

Accounting for Emotional Damages if Filing a Car Accident Claim

According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, there were 29,188 crashes in Brooklyn between the years 2004 and 2008. After a car accident, drivers may experience both physical and emotional injury. Emotional damages range from relatively minor distress that people feel after an accident to severe mental conditions.

Emotional Issues After a Car Accident
After a car accident, people commonly feel anger, anxiety, shock, irritability, agitation, and self-blame. Sometimes the feelings manifest themselves physically in:
- Severe anger
- Shouting
- Loss of appetite
- Lack of energy
- Nightmares
- Hypervigilance
- Difficulty concentrating
- Forgetfulness

Every person's mind and body has different ways of processing emotions and traumatic events. While some emotional responses to accidents pass, others may experience more debilitating conditions. This may be especially true after serious accidents involving severe injuries or fatalities. Some drivers, for example, might experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Those experiencing PTSD can have a variety of symptoms including:
- Hyper-alertness
- Reliving the accident
- Emotional numbing
- Avoidance

For example, the victim may avoid driving in cars or have flashbacks and hypervigilance while in a car. Others might experience depression or anxiety related to the accident as well as their injuries. Accident victims who suffer serious physical injuries may become depressed as a result of the injury. For example, a driver who suffers a spinal cord injury might also experience depression related to the effects of the injury.

Emotional and mental health conditions can cause limitations in patients’ lives and may require treatment with mental health professionals. Auto accident claims should address these damages.

Pursuing Damages for Emotional Effects of a Car Accident

There's a distinction between economic damages and noneconomic damages. Economic damages include things like medical expenses and lost wages that are fairly easily quantifiable, while noneconomic damages are monetary awards for emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of the enjoyment of life, and other intangible damages related to the accident, which might heavily rely on evaluating the effects of the plaintiff’s or claimant’s emotional damages.

If a car accident victim needs to seek mental health therapy or take medication for PTSD or another mental health condition related to the accident, these expenses can be covered in a personal injury lawsuit as economic damages. But it’s important to consider future expenses as well as those already incurred. Mental health professionals may offer insight on how long treatment will last so the parties can determine a fair amount for damages.

Proving the Damages
Claimants and plaintiffs pursuing car accident claims must prove causation, i.e., that the accident led to the damages. The accident victim might provide testimony about certain emotional damages, for example. Accident victims can also keep a journal of their emotions and feelings after the accident to use as evidence as well as a way to cope. In many cases, medical records from mental health professionals and other professionals can establish the condition arose from the accident.

Seeking Legal Assistance

Seeking legal counsel from experienced Iowa car accident attorneys such as those at Walker, Billingsley & Bair can provide invaluable support in filing insurance claims or pursuing personal injury lawsuits. With a comprehensive understanding of Iowa law, their team can help gather evidence, establish liability, and secure the compensation deserved by accident victims.

Suffering from the aftermath of a car accident shouldn't impede your pursuit of justice and fair compensation. The Iowa injury lawyers at Walker, Billingsley & Bair work hard to level the field between injured Iowans and insurance companies.

That's why we provide this FREE book; The Legal Insider's Guide to Iowa Car Accidents: 7 Secrets to Not Wreck Your Case. To learn more about what our legal team will do to help you protect your Iowa injury claim, contact Walker, Billingsley & Bair to schedule a no-cost consultation. Call 641-792-3595 to order your free accident book today.