Winder Car Accident Lawyer

Female Driver Making Phone Call After Traffic AccidentThere are hundreds of motor vehicle crashes that result in injury every year in Winder, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation. With millions of cars traveling on the major highways running through Winder every year, each driver is at risk of being injured in a wreck. 

Insurance companies work to avoid having to pay for any future medical expenses or lost wages that you may incur. They often get away with this because an injured person may not know the extent of the injuries and other losses until days or weeks after the wreck. But if you accept the insurance company’s settlement offer, you forfeit your right to seek greater compensation later on.

Before you accept any insurance offer or even speak to the other driver’s insurer, call the experienced attorneys at Scholle Law. For over 25 years, our team has skillfully represented injury victims throughout Northeast Georgia, recovering tens of millions of dollars on their behalf. 

Call us at (866) 592-1296 or contact us online today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with a car accident lawyer in Winder.

Types of Compensation Available After an Auto Accident

Georgia law defines two types of compensatory damages you may seek after a car wreck: special and general. Special, or economic, damages are intended to compensate you for the real monetary losses you suffered due to the accident. General, or non-economic, damages compensate you for your intangible losses that have no provable dollar amount.

Special damages

Economic, or special, damages are those that are capable of being quantified with receipts, billing records, and other accounting or expense records. Some of the most common examples of losses that would fall into this category include:

  • Current medical expenses
  • Future medical expenses
  • Ambulance fees
  • Lost wages
  • Property damage and vehicle repair expenses
  • Rental car expenses
  • Costs of household services that cannot be performed while injured
  • Any other out-of-pocket expenses attributable to the injury incident

General damages

Sad woman sitting on wheelchair in empty roomNon-economic, or general, damages are those that cannot be quantified with a bill or receipt. The most well-known form of general damages is pain and suffering. What may not come immediately to mind, however, is the diminished quality of life that a person may endure after a wreck. 

Common examples of general damages include:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Diminished quality of life
  • Mental anguish
  • Fear and mental trauma from injury incident event
  • Stress
  • Anxiety

Punitive damages

General and special damages are considered “compensatory,” since they are awarded to compensate you for your losses. However, when the at-fault party acts with “willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or that entire want of care which would raise the presumption of conscious indifference to consequences,” punitive damages may be assessed.

Punitive damages are not awarded as compensation for injury, but rather to punish the wrongdoer for their especially egregious actions and hopefully deter any similar future misconduct. As such, the majority of these damages are actually paid to the state treasury department, not to the victim. 

Take Action with the Help of a Winder Car Accident Attorney

The State of Georgia enforces a deadline on car accident lawsuits (known as the “statute of limitations”). In general, most people injured by a car crash have just two years to file a claim. If you do not file your lawsuit before this deadline, you forfeit your right to seek compensation for your losses. 

Immediately following the wreck, the insurance company will likely make some kind of settlement offer. If you accept this offer, you forfeit your right to seek greater compensation later on.

Before you accept any insurance offer or even speak to the other driver’s insurer, call the experienced attorneys at Scholle Law. For over 25 years, our team has skillfully represented injury victims throughout Oconee County, recovering tens of millions of dollars on their behalf. 

Call us at (866) 592-1296 or contact us online today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with a Winder car accident lawyer.