After a car accident in Georgia, you could file both a bodily injury claim and a property damage claim to recover compensation for your losses. Accident victims tend to resolve property damage claims soon after a crash, while bodily injury claims typically take longer to resolve.
An experienced personal injury attorney at Bayuk Pratt can help you understand the differences between bodily injury and property damage claims. Knowing those differences can help you seek full compensation for your accident-related losses.
What Do Bodily Injury Claims Cover?
In a bodily injury claim, you seek to recover compensation through the at-fault party’s liability insurance for all losses arising from the physical and mental harm you suffered due to a car accident. Those losses may include financial expenses incurred to treat your accident-related injuries or accommodate prolonged or permanent disabilities you have suffered due to those injuries. Your losses can also include emotional or mental distress or trauma resulting from the accident and your injuries.
To recover compensation in a personal injury claim, you will need various kinds of evidence to prove the other driver’s fault for the crash and the extent of your losses. This evidence may include:
- Police crash reports
- Accident scene photos and videos
- Surveillance or traffic camera footage
- Dashcam footage
- Eyewitness statements
- Accident reconstruction expert reports
- Medical records
- Vocational functioning assessments
- Medical bills, invoices, and receipts
- Pay stubs or income statements.
What Do Property Damage Claims Cover?
Property damage claims cover financial losses resulting from damage to your property in a car accident. Compensation can include reimbursement for the cost of repairing or replacing your damaged property. Property damage claims can also compensate you for consequential losses resulting from an accident. Finally, you might also recover compensation for the loss in value that your property sustains even after you’ve repaired it.
What Types of Bodily Injury Compensation Can You Recover in Georgia?
Compensation in bodily injury claims can provide you with money for expenses or losses, such as:
- Medical treatment, including emergency care, hospitalization, surgeries, physical/occupational therapy, and medication
- Long-term disability expenses, including home renovations to install disability accommodations, assistive equipment, or home health services
- Lost wages or income from missed work during recovery
- Lost earning capacity or future income due to prolonged or permanent disabilities that affect your ability to work
- Pain and suffering from injuries
- Emotional trauma or distress, including reduced quality of life.
What Types of Property Damage Compensation Can You Recover?
In a property damage claim, you may seek compensation for losses such as:
- Costs of vehicle repairs
- Reimbursement for the value of a totaled vehicle
- Temporary transportation expenses, such as car rental fees
- Repair or replacement of other damaged or destroyed personal property inside your vehicle
- Diminished vehicle value, which represents the reduction in a car’s value due to it having an accident history, poor-quality repairs, or the use of substandard repair parts.
Will the Same Claims Adjuster Handle the Bodily Injury and Property Damage Claims?
Some auto insurance coverage providers will assign the same claims adjuster to handle bodily injury and property damage claims. Other companies may have adjusters who handle only bodily injury claims, and others who focus on property damage claims. An insurance company may assign different adjusters to bodily injury claims and property damage claims due to technical issues that each claim involves or because the insurer has different caseloads for bodily injury and property damage claims.
How Do the Statutes of Limitations Vary for Bodily Injury and Property Damage Claims?
Georgia law imposes different statutes of limitations for bodily injury claims and property damage claims. Bodily injury claims have a two-year statute of limitations that typically starts on the date of the injury. Property damage claims, meanwhile, have a four-year statute of limitations. It starts to run on the date when the property damage occurred in the accident.
How Long Can It Take Either Claim to Settle?
Bodily injury liability and property damage claims can take as little as a few weeks to settle or as long as several months to resolve through a settlement or trial. Property damage claims typically settle more quickly than bodily injury claims, since property damage losses become clear soon after a car accident. In contrast, an accident victim’s bodily injury claim may take months to become clear, as they may require extended treatment before doctors can determine a prognosis.
Factors that can affect the duration of a bodily injury or property damage claim include:
- The severity of injuries or property damage
- The duration of medical treatment and rehabilitation
- Whether the parties dispute liability for the accident
- The speed of the investigation by the insurance company
- Whether the parties can agree on a settlement
- The court’s schedule, if the case goes to trial.
Can a Georgia Car Accident Lawyer Help Me with Both Claims?
An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you pursue both bodily injury and property damage claims after a car accident. Some of the ways that a car accident attorney will help you pursue compensation after a crash include:
- Investigating the accident to recover evidence
- Identifying liable parties and applicable insurance coverage
- Consulting knowledge professionals, such as accident reconstruction, medical, vocational, and financial experts
- Documenting all losses resulting from the accident
- Negotiating with insurance companies to pursue fair settlements
- Litigating your bodily injury and/or property damage claims through trial, if necessary.
Contact a Georgia Car Accident Lawyer
If you suffered injuries in an accident involving a careless driver, you may have the right to recover compensation through bodily injury and property damage claims. We can guide you through the process and manage the various steps.
With over 50 years of combined legal experience, the attorneys at Bayuk Pratt have established a record of success, including recovering over $300 million for clients. Our founding partners previously served as senior partners for two of the world’s most prestigious defense law firms. We have extensive experience with how insurance companies handle claims, and we use our insights protect our clients’ rights.
Contact us today for a free consultation with a personal injury attorney at Bayuk Pratt to learn more about the compensation you can seek after an auto accident.
