How Arizona Personal Injury Claims Are Evaluated
A serious injury can put life plans on hold. Medical expenses can add up quickly, and the time spent out of work can lead to further financial pressure. Receiving the right amount of compensation from the party at fault can make the recovery process more efficient and substantially less stressful.
Here’s everything you need to know about how personal injury claims are evaluated in Arizona.
How Liability And Negligence Are Established in Personal Injury Claims in Arizona
The foundation of every personal injury claim is liability. Before any conversations regarding compensation amounts can take place, the injured party needs to show that another person or legal entity is responsible for causing them harm.
In most personal injury cases in Arizona, establishing liability comes down to proving that the other party acted in a negligent manner and that the claimant’s injuries are a direct result of these actions.
Negligence is a legal term that describes the failure to exercise reasonable care under specific circumstances.
The fact that an accident happened doesn’t automatically mean that one or both parties were negligent. Negligence needs to be established. To do so, four elements need to be proven: duty of care, breach of said duty, causation, and damages.
- A duty of care is a legal obligation to act with reasonable care to avoid harm to others. Drivers must follow traffic rules, employers must provide safe working conditions, doctors must provide proper medical treatment to their patients – and so on.
- A breach of duty happens when someone fails to meet their duty of care. A driver runs a red light, a store manager overlooks an unstable installation, a doctor ignores an important symptom.
- The injured party will need to establish causation. This means that there must be a connection between the negligent behavior and the injuries the claimant sustained. It is not enough to just establish that someone acted negligently – the negligent act must be the cause or a substantial contributor to the injuries.
- Finally, the claimant must present and prove damages. These can be medical expenses, income lost because of the injury, damages to property, as well as pain and suffering caused by the incident.
Evidence Needed for a Strong Personal Injury Claim
The type of evidence needed will vary depending on the specific circumstances of the accident.
The most commonly used documents for evaluating personal injury claims include
- Medical records; emergency room records, notes from a physician, medical bills, treatment plans – anything that documents the nature and extent of injuries.
- Accident reports: for example, police reports
- Photos and videos that show the accident itself, the scene of the accident, injuries, or property damage
- Witness statements from persons who saw the incident or its immediate aftermath.
- Physical evidence such as damaged personal belongings, property, or other items connected to the incident
In a lot of personal injury cases in Arizona, the strength of the claim will depend not on what happened – but on what can be proven. The most reliable evidence is the one collected soon after the accident. As time passes, physical evidence may disappear, footage may be overwritten, and witnesses may have a harder time remembering specific details. This is why it is important to preserve evidence as soon as possible to support a claim for damages.
Naturally, medical records are one of the key pieces of evidence in personal injury claims. They establish a clear connection between the accident and the resulting injuries. They explain the nature and severity of the injuries, and potential recovery time. Insurance companies also use medical records to evaluate damages.
It’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible after an accident. Delaying treatment can make it more difficult to prove that the injuries were caused by the specific accident. An insurance company may also argue that since medical attention wasn’t sought immediately, the injuries were not serious.
Witness statements should also be collected as early as possible. People who observed what happened may not be easy to locate after the accident, and their memory can also get foggier over time. Collecting names, contact information, and testimony right after the incident will make it easier to get an accurate account of what happened.
Surveillance footage is also valuable evidence. It’s important to check nearby businesses, traffic cameras, and private security systems for possible captures of the incident before the footage gets overwritten.
Records of how the injury affects daily life can be useful too. These could be receipts for incident-related expenses, pain level diaries, notes about missed work and recovery progress, and descriptions of physical limitations. These records may not be as strong as medical evidence, but they can offer additional context for the assessment of damages.
Liability may be disputed – and an insurance company may also argue that the claimant may bear some responsibility for the accident. They may also try to undervalue the claim, arguing that the damages were not as big as stated by the victim. In such situations, consulting a Suzuki Law personal injury lawyer can give the claimant a better understanding of how Arizona law sees their case, what additional evidence can strengthen their claim, and how to prove negligence and liability.
How Insurers Evaluate Injuries And Damages
When the liability has been established, the next step is for the insurance company to determine the value of the claim.
A big part of this is medical expenses. These may include emergency medical treatment, hospitalisation, diagnostics, surgeries, prescription medications, rehabilitation and physical therapy – and other medical expenses related to the injury.
Insurance companies will also look into the loss of income following the injury. A claimant may be entitled to compensation for the wages lost while they were recovering and unable to work.
If the injuries are more serious, they may reduce the claimant’s ability to work, limiting their earning capacity. To prove these financial losses, the applicant will need to present relevant documentation such as pay stubs, tax returns, statements from employers, and others that help prove these financial losses.
Insurers also evaluate non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. Unlike medical bills, these losses do not have a fixed monetary value. Pain and suffering in personal injury cases may refer to physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety, depression – and other ways in which the incurred injury has affected a person’s quality of life.
As every personal injury claim is different, there is no one-size-fits-all single formula that can be used here to determine value. The totality of all evidence will be evaluated: the strength of liability, severity of the injuries, credibility of evidence, and long-term impact.
Factors That Can Reduce Compensation in Personal Injury Claims
Arizona follows a comparative fault system. This is a legal rule that splits the blame when more than one party is responsible for an accident or injury. When it comes to compensation, it means that the amount a claimant will receive may be reduced by their exact established percentage of fault. So, if it was found that the claimant shares 20% of the fault for the accident, their compensation will be reduced by this 20%.
The amount a claimant gets to collect can also depend on the available insurance coverage. If the losses exceed the insurance policy limits of the party at fault, it may be difficult to recover more than the coverage allows. In some cases, however, the claimant’s own insurance under uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage can be used as an additional recovery source.
Compensation may also be reduced if the injured party doesn’t take reasonable, actionable steps to support their recovery. For example, if the person in question doesn’t seek medical attention quickly, misses rehabilitation appointments, or doesn’t follow treatment recommendations, justifying certain damages will become more difficult,
Another thing to consider here is the existence of medical liens or reimbursement claims. Health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, or a healthcare provider, under specific circumstances, may have a legal right to recover some of the medical expenses that they paid as a result of a settlement. The amount the claimant ultimately receives can, thus, be lower.
Finally, Arizona follows a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. If the related lawsuit is not filed within two years of the date of the injury, the victim won’t be able to seek compensation – regardless of how strong their case is.
How a Personal Injury Claim May Be Calculated: Example
Let’s say a cyclist is hit by a driver driving over the speed limit. The cyclist suffers an injury – and the economic damages from the accident amount to $50,000: $40,000 in medical bills plus $10,000 in loss of income. The non-economic damages (pain and suffering from a serious injury) are assigned a factor of 2 and add up to $80,000. The total claim is then $130,000.
But now comparative fault comes in. The insurer may argue that the cyclist was outside the bike lane at the time of the accident, which could make it 10% their fault. The cyclist’s compensation is then reduced by 10%, making it $117,000.
