A personal injury case in St. Louis will introduce you to many new medical, legal, and insurance terms. These terms are important because they identify the concepts that will determine whether you recover injury compensation.
As you navigate your case, talk to your lawyer or doctor when they use terms you do not understand. In some cases, they misunderstood or misinterpreted your injuries or accident. Ensuring that you, your doctor, and your lawyer remain on the same page can improve your odds of winning or settling your case.
Medical Terms
Injury cases almost always begin with an accident and a visit to the emergency room or doctor’s office. Some terms you may hear during your medical visits include the following:
Concussion
A concussion is a mild brain injury. It results from a jolt to the brain that causes it to swell and inflame, but it usually causes no permanent structural damage. You may experience serious symptoms such as confusion, amnesia, and clumsiness. These symptoms typically clear up within two to three months.
Nerve Damage
Nerves carry signals between your brain and body. Nerve damage disrupts these signals. Damage can result from many injuries, including:
- Lacerations
- Burns
- Traction, a medical term for stretched nerves
- Compression, also called a pinched nerve
Nerve damage is typically permanent, although physical therapy might help your brain rewire itself to use nearby undamaged nerves to reestablish some connections.
Sprain Or Strain
Sprains and strains are often confused with each other. Both injuries result from hyperextension, which occurs when your body bends, twists, or stretches unnaturally.
Sprains happen when you hyperextend ligaments in your joints. Common symptoms include joint pain, inflammation, and instability.
Strains are hyperextended tendons or muscles. Some symptoms caused by strains include muscle spasms, weakness, and pain.
Work Restriction
A doctor may restrict your activities to avoid worsening your injuries. For example, a doctor may advise against lifting anything after a back injury. If your job involves these prohibited activities, your doctor may provide a note to your employer identifying your work restrictions.
Your employer is not legally required to change your job duties to accommodate these limits. However, most will shift you to light duty temporarily. You can use a personal injury case to recover any pay you lose due to the change in positions.
Maximum Medical Improvement
Maximum medical improvement is used to determine when you have a permanent disability. It is identified at the point when your injuries will not heal or recover with additional surgery, treatment, or therapy.
Insurance Terms
Insurance companies also use some terms unique to their industry, including the following:
Liability Insurance
An insurer issues a liability insurance policy to a policyholder. This policy obligates the insurer to pay any liability owed by the policyholder to a claimant. This complex idea is best illustrated with an example.
Every vehicle owner in Missouri must buy at least $25,000 per victim in bodily injury liability insurance. When a driver on the policy causes an accident, they are legally liable for the victim’s injuries. The insurer pays that liability on the policyholder’s behalf according to the policy’s terms.
Policy Limit
Insurance companies protect themselves from large claims with policy limits. A policy limit is the maximum amount the insurer will pay for a covered loss.
For example, a homeowner’s insurance policy might include $200,000 in liability insurance. If a visitor to the home slips and falls on an icy porch, the insurer will pay up to $200,000 of the visitor’s injury-related losses. If the visitor had $250,000 in losses, they would need to recover the shortfall from the homeowner.
Claim
A claim is a request for payment of a covered loss. When dealing with liability insurance policies, the accident victim is sometimes referred to as a “third-party claimant” because the first and second parties to the policy were the insurer and policyholder.
A claim describes the incident and may explain the claimant’s theory for the policyholder’s liability. For example, a car insurance claim may describe a rear-end collision and point out that the other driver was tailgating you.
Claims also include “proof of loss.” This term simply refers to any documents showing the extent of your injuries and the losses you want the insurer to cover.
Claims Adjuster
A claims adjuster is a professional who works for the insurer. They review claims to make sure you submit everything needed to determine whether the claim falls within the policy’s scope. Claims adjusters protect the insurer from paying claims they are not legally obligated to pay.
A claims adjuster can deny your claim, forcing your lawyer to submit additional evidence or arguments. If an adjuster does not withdraw the denial, you may need to file a lawsuit to recover compensation.
Legal Terms
The legal field is full of terms that can confuse many clients. Some terms you might hear during your injury claim include the following:
Liability
A liability is a legal obligation. In many injury cases, liability arises from negligence.
Negligence
Negligence was created by the law to protect people from unintentional acts that nonetheless have harmful consequences. For example, even when a person deliberately runs a red light, they typically do not intend to collide with another vehicle. Thus, any injuries caused by a red-light runner resulted from their negligence.
Comparative Fault
Comparative fault is a legal doctrine that allows you to recover compensation even if you are partially at fault for your injuries. Missouri’s pure comparative negligence statute does not limit the victim’s ability to recover damages based on their degree of fault. In other words, you can receive a settlement or court award regardless of how responsible you were for your injuries.
However, the court or insurance company will reduce your compensation in proportion to your share of the fault. For example, if you were 19% at fault for your car accident, you could only receive compensation for 81% of your losses.
Damages
Damages are a remedy in which you receive money from the at-fault party or their insurer. In other words, damages do not refer to the harm to your body or property due to your accident. Instead, they refer to the compensation you seek for the losses arising from that harm.
Economic Loss
Economic losses encompass the hard costs of your injuries. They typically include medical bills, lost wages, and diminished future earnings.
Non-Economic Loss
Non-economic losses include all the intangible ways your injuries diminished your life. They include pain and suffering, but they can also include disability, disfigurement, and dismemberment caused by the accident.
Learn More From Schultz & Myers Personal Injury Lawyers
A skilled and experienced personal injury attorney can guide you through these complex terms and concepts. Contact the team at Schultz & Myers Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation, or call us at (314) 444-4444 to discuss your injuries and how we can help you recover compensation for them.
