When you purchase a product, you expect that product to work as intended. You expect to be able to use the product safely without getting injured. When a product doesn't just work improperly and harms you, you have grounds to file a defective product personal injury lawsuit. There are specific steps you and your attorney can take to ensure you obtain adequate compensation.
Key #1: Know What Is Included in General Damages
When it comes to claiming damages in your lawsuit, you will be making a claim for general damages. General damages include your physical suffering, psychological distress, and embarrassment. Your general damages are different than your medical damages but are often related to your medical damages.
For example, maybe you broke your leg in a scooter accident. The medical bills would fall under medical damages; however, the suffering you felt due to having a broken leg and the fear you felt about being careful and not injuring yourself would fall under general damages.
Your general damages should be directly related to how the defective product experience impacted your life.
Key #2: Have Evidence to Back up Your Claims
Second, you need hard evidence to back up your claims. Your medical records are often a great place to start as they can detail what your injuries looked like and how they impacted your physical health. Your medical records will also include information about restrictions on your life, which you can use to demonstrate how your life was impacted.
You can create your own evidence, as well. You can log in the time you spent driving to each medical appointment and the time you spent at the medical appointments. You can keep a log that details how your injury impacted your life, from how it changed your daily routine to how the injury impacted your sleep. If you had to take specific medications, you can detail how they impacted your mood and appetite in your journal.
Key #3: Come up With a Reasonable Ask
When it comes time to make your claim, you need to make sure you have a reasonable claim. A broken leg that healed itself in six weeks, and you were back to full strength after three months; it doesn't make sense to make a claim for general damages for a million dollars when the injury didn't have a million-dollar impact on your life.
Perhaps you ask for double or triple the amount of your medical bills for your general damages. Or maybe you figure out an hourly rate that would compensate you for the time your life was derailed, such as $100 a day for general damages, with an ask of $90,000.
The other party is more likely to take your claim seriously and work to settle with you when you and your attorney bring them a reasonable, researched number. Expect some negotiations to take place, so build some wiggle room into that number.
If you are injured because of a defective product, one of the best ways to ensure you get fair compensation is by understanding the type of payment you can ask for, having evidence to back-up your claims, and by asking for a reasonable amount. A personal injury attorney with a focus on product claims can help you build your case.
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