How much income did the injured person lose?

You can get a certain baseline figure by looking at a person’s current earnings and projecting out cost-of-living increases until they reach retirement age. But this baseline figure may not do justice to what an injured party’s real earning potential was.

What if they were in graduate school and on the verge of obtaining a master’s degree that would lead to significant increase in earning potential? What if they were the owner or partner in a business that had just turned the corner into profitability and reasonably anticipated even better days ahead? For that matter, what if they simply had opportunities to work overtime, impress their current employer and earn promotions? The catastrophic nature of their injuries may have rendered that impossible.

An experienced Baton Rouge catastrophic injury attorney can work with expert witnesses within the profession an injured person worked in. A reasonable projection can be built out of what the injured party—and a family that may have been depending on them—have lost. That projection can help reach the ultimate settlement figure.

What is the value of a person’s mental anguish?

The short answer is that there’s no monetary value that can be assigned to the ability to enjoy life with loved ones. But in a strict legal sense, the settlement ought to make some attempt to compensate the injury victim and their family for what they lost.

There’s a good chance the injured person can no longer do their favorite hobbies, perhaps permanently. It’s reasonable to think being at an event with family and friends, even if physically possible, is now a mental and emotional struggle. It’s certainly likely that ongoing therapy is needed to adjust to these changed circumstances.

Furthermore, the sheer catastrophic nature of an accident can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues. The victim of an electrical accident might suffer ongoing nightmares. Physical disfigurement can lead to serious depression.