Golf carts are niche vehicles that, while built for a specific purpose, are legally allowed to share the road with other vehicles in Connecticut. Of course, the fact they are specialized vehicles means there are specialized rules and regulations for them to follow.
Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of these rules, and when they are violated, the odds of accidents dramatically rise.
Every year, an estimated 15,000 golf-cart-related injuries are treated in emergency care. Of the accidents that led to these injuries, 40% involved a person falling out, and up to 10% involved rollovers (which is to be expected given the high center of gravity among golf carts).
A compounding risk on top of the golf carts themselves is irresponsible drivers. More than half of golf cart accidents have been shown to involve alcohol, while many others involve poorly maintained or illegally modified carts.
All these factors make golf cart accidents difficult cases to navigate on your own. Thankfully, for those in the Constitution State, there is always the option of getting help from a Hartford golf cart accident lawyer.
How Hartford Golf Cart Accident Attorneys Help Clients
Attorneys are incredible allies for any personal injury case, and golf cart accident claims are no exception. Statistics demonstrate that working with a lawyer nearly doubles the odds that an insurance company agrees to make any payout at all and that said payout actually covers all a person’s losses.
Accident lawyers have been known to secure claims up to four times an insurer’s initial offer, even after deducting attorney’s fees. This difference comes from their ability and expertise in several areas crucial for maximizing a claim’s value.
Investigation and Evidence Gathering: While the insurance company does run an investigation to determine the value of your claim, the reality is that their findings are biased to prioritize the interests of the business rather than those of a client. Your golf cart accident lawyer will undertake their own investigation, going over the same evidence (and including any missed evidence) to prove your losses.
Negotiation: Insurers will almost always offer low first offers for a settlement, often either insufficient to cover all damages or only enough to cover the cheapest medical and repair services available for them. Lawyers can argue against these low offers, backed by hard evidence showing you need far more than insurers initially say.
Case-Building: Hartford golf cart accident attorneys specialize in multiple niches of the legal system, including personal injury law, insurance law, and, most importantly, vehicle use laws. This is especially important when building cases for golf cart accidents because of how specialized these vehicles are and how specific the circumstances they create for an accident and injury claim are.
Legal Representation: Sometimes, claims just don’t go the way you want, and a settlement is never reached. When this happens, your attorney will offer you the option of filing a lawsuit, potentially having a judge or jury compel the insurer or at-fault party to pay you what you are owed.
Recoverable Damages After a Hartford Golf Cart Accident
The different damages you can recover after a golf cart accident depend on the specific circumstances of the event. However, losses can generally be categorized as economic or non-economic.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are financial losses victims incur in an accident. These are tangible losses that can be verified with evidence such as receipts, reports, and other types of documentation.
Common economic damages include the following:
Medical Expenses: These include costs incurred for treatment of injuries, such as doctor fees, hospital bills, medication, emergency transportation, tests, and more. Reasonable projections of future treatment costs also fall under this economic damage.
Lost Wages: When you lose income due to your injuries, lost wages pay you back for the amount you missed out on. They cover the time between the injury and your return to work (or projected return to work).
Loss of Earning Capacity: This is similar to lost wages, but rather than covering the actual amount of salary lost, it covers potential decreases in future earning potential. Say, for example, if a broken arm prevents you from taking certain jobs even after recovery, loss of earning capacity can cover that.
Property Damage: Economic damages that represent the loss or decrease in the value of an asset an accident victim owns are considered property damage. In simpler terms, this is compensation for your vehicle – in this case, your golf cart or car involved in an accident with a golf cart – and any items you had on you or in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses: Miscellaneous expenses you incur that you otherwise wouldn’t have if you weren’t injured may be covered by your insurance policy. These include childcare, home services, and other services that your household may need while you cannot take care of them yourself.
Economic damages are also called compensatory damages, and the terms are often used interchangeably, with the latter used to emphasize their purpose. That is, to compensate injured parties for the economic effect that losses caused them.
Non-Economic Damages
In contrast to economic damages, non-economic damages are a type of compensation awarded for subjective losses. Such losses typically have no hard monetary value attached to them and often involve an individual’s experience of life that becomes affected by an accident or injuries related to the accident.
Here are some examples of non-economic damages.
Pain and Suffering: Any physical or emotional discomfort experienced as a result of an injury is covered under non-economic damages as pain and suffering. This pays for the experience of an injury rather than for the cost of an injury itself, as covered by medical expenses.
Mental Anguish: Beyond the immediate emotional distress covered under pain and suffering, mental anguish compensates for the psychological impact of the sustained injury. This includes the development of conditions including PTSD, insomnia, and other persistent disorders.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life: Injuries may lead to an inability to participate in activities that you used to find fulfilling. This type of non-economic damage attaches value to the experiences you can no longer enjoy.
Loss of Consortium: Intimate partners and spouses of a victim may be compensated in the event that an accident leaves a person unable to fulfill their normal roles in a relationship. This is usually the case in the event of amputations or when nerve damage leads to loss of functionality in different parts of the body.
Scarring and Disfigurement: Physical changes to a person’s face and body may be a source of distress and self-consciousness. At times, victims may suffer social stigma due to the alterations to their appearance, especially with larger injuries.
Non-economic damages are also called general damages. While they do not have inherent objective value, insurance companies have two main ways of determining their worth in a claim.
Multiplier Method: The multiplier method is a simple method of compensating for non-economic damages without having to sift through their subjective nature. This method assigns a multiplier – between 1 and 5 – based on the severity of economic damages and then multiplies it by them to determine a final value.
Per Diem Method: This method assigns a daily value to noneconomic damages based on known factors such as the amount and severity of losses. This value is then multiplied by the number of days that the accident victim experienced (or is projected to experience) pain and suffering up to a cap and then added to the economic damages for the final sum of non-economic damages.
There are other ways to assign value to noneconomic damages, such as the decision of a judge or jury or a combination of elements from both the multiplier and per diem methods.
Work With a Hartford Golf Cart Accident Law Firm; Work With Bert McDowell Injury Law
When you need compensation after a golf cart accident, look to Bert McDowell Injury Law. We offer you the legal mastery necessary to get maximum compensation for a niche mishap like a golf cart accident, whether on the golf course or on the roads.
At Bert McDowell Injury Law, we pride ourselves on our three pillars: client communication, client attention, and client success.
Client Communication: We keep you informed through the entire process, updating you with our progress and giving you opportunities to actively participate in strategizing an approach. We listen to your concerns and give you the no-nonsense information you need to understand what is going on when you need to.
Client Attention: We offer complete dedication to those who work with us, taking note of specific circumstances to your case, especially in special vehicle claims like golf cart accident cases. You are more than just another case number to go on our track record; you are a partner who deserves our utmost care and attention.
Client Success: We treat your successes as our successes. We love the idea that what we do helps our clients resume living the quality of life they deserve, and everything we put ourselves through is dedicated to reaching that.
You are first at all times.
Call Bert McDowell Injury Law today at (203) 590-9169 and get started with your claim. We offer free consultations, so there is no risk to working with us.
(203) 690-1030
(203) 690-1030
Golf carts are niche vehicles that, while built for a specific purpose, are legally allowed to share the road with other vehicles in Connecticut. Of course, the fact they are specialized vehicles means there are specialized rules and regulations for them to follow.