Whenever someone is involved in an accident, their primary concern is about how their income or their ability to earn a living will be impacted by their injuries. However, there are certain activities that you don’t get paid for that can suffer during the recovery period as well. These activities include home maintenance, housekeeping, and lawn care. The following will help you understand four primary principles behind the loss of ability to perform these unpaid activities.
• The lack of a dollar value does not equate to a loss of economic value – even though these are unpaid activities, they still have an economic value that can be calculated for their personal injury claim. Your injuries can prevent you from performing several daily activities or tasks such as cleaning, cooking, mowing your yard, or shopping. Consequently, you may have no choice but to pay someone to perform these tasks while you’re recovering.
• The loss of efficiency is also a consideration – while many individuals will resume performing these activities, they will be less efficient in doing so and will probably experience a great deal of pain in the process. In these circumstances, the work is being done. Therefore, there is no economic value that can be calculated. In some cases, the courts will assign a non-economic value under pain and suffering where this is concerned.
• This is your claim, not your family’s – it’s not uncommon for an individual to rely on other family members to perform these activities while they are recovering from their injuries. Unfortunately, some injury victims never fully recover to the way they were prior to their accident. Although your family members may shoulder the burden of these tasks for you, this doesn’t entitle them to file claims of their own.
• You can be compensated for your loss of capacity, even if you rely on unpaid help – keep in mind that you don’t have to hire professional services to file a loss of capacity claim. If family members or friends are willing to perform these tasks for you and not charge you for them, you should pay attention to what they’re doing and when. This information will be helpful when legal professionals are calculating what your loss of capacity claim is worth.
If you’ve recently sustained injuries in an accident, you should consider discussing this with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Edmonton since you may be entitled to compensation for damages. They will not just listen to your case but will be able to judge the merits of your case to help you fathom the amount you stand to gain. Based on their valuation about the potential of the claim, they will accept or reject your case.