Mead, Colorado is a small town of approximately 5,000 residents located off of I-25, east of Longmont and north of Firestone, Frederick, and Dacono. Mead’s population has more than doubled over the past 15 years, which is partially due Mead’s strategic location along I-25 and Highway 7 (3 rd Street) between Highways 66 and 34. At Cook, Bradford & Levy, we understand well how the growth of a small town can be both a blessing and cause problems like increased traffic accidents and congestion. If you have been injured in a car, motorcycle, truck, or bicycle accident in the Mead area, we invite you to give our Mead personal injury lawyers a call today at 303-543-1000 for a free consultation about your case. The call is free, and we will let you know shortly after your call whether we think our lawyers can help you with your case.
What Kinds of Injuries and Losses Can I Recover After My Accident?In Colorado there are three broad areas of damages that you can recover if you have been hurt in an accident. If you have been in an accident, our Mead personal injury attorneys will explain to you in detail what types of harms and losses are recoverable. As a general rule, however, the three main categories of damages you can recover for in Colorado are: economic damages (sometimes referred to as “special damages”), non-economic damages (sometimes referred to as “general damages”), and damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. We will go into each type of damages category below.
Economic LossesIn a nutshell, economic damages are losses that you can easily attach a number to using objective evidence like bills and receipts. For example, the most common economic damages we see are for your past medical bills, lost wages, and out of pocket expenses. With each of these types of economic damages, our Mead personal injury lawyers can prove your losses through the bill that you received for your ER visit or surgery, for example. Similarly, we can show your lost wages with a paycheck stub that shows how much you earn, along with a doctor’s note that shows you had to miss work to recover from your injuries. If it seems like proving your economic losses is common sense, it is because it is. With that said, proving your economic losses gets trickier as your losses increase and if you will continue to suffer in the future. In this scenario, we will need to prove future medical expenses and future wage loss or loss of earning capacity. Often times our experienced Mead personal injury attorneys will retain experts such as physicians and economists to paint an accurate picture of what your future will look like as a result of your accident.
Non-Economic Losses – Pain and SufferingThe second category of damages is non-economic losses, which includes the term “pain and suffering” that you may have heard. Unlike economic losses, which are objective and quantifiable, calculating the amount of non-economic losses in your case is more of an art form. Generally speaking, you can recover for non-economic losses such as pain and suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of your time. The figure to attach to these losses is generally a function of the circumstances of your case, how bad the accident was, how bad the defendant’s behavior was, and how much the accident impacted you. At the end of your treatment, an experienced Mead personal injury lawyer will be able to give you a range of values that reasonably apply to the non-economic damages that you sustained in your case.
Physical Impairment and DisfigurementThe third and often overlooked category of damages is physical impairment and disfigurement. This category of damage is similar to the non-economic loss category in that there is no precise formula for calculating the value of your physical impairment or disfigurement. Our Mead personal injury attorneys will look at the overall injuries you have suffered in your accident and use that, along with our experience, to attach a reasonable value to your case. For example, if you suffered a scar across your face in the accident, it is more valuable than if you suffered a scar across your low back that nobody can see. Similarly, if you suffered a spinal injury that confines you to a wheelchair for the rest of your life, that scenario has far more value than if you walk with a slight limp (although that has its own value).
As you can see, establishing the value of a personal injury case is a combination of using objective evidence, experience, and fully understanding what you have been through in your accident. At Cook, Bradford & Levy, our Mead personal injury attorneys have over 60 years of combined experience listening to our clients and presenting their stories to insurance adjusters, judges, or juries. We have a remarkable track record of success, recovering tens of millions of dollars over the years.
If you have been injured in an accident near Mead, Colorado, we invite you to call us today at 303-543-1000 for a free consultation so that we can hear about your case. The call is risk-free, and we look forward to hearing from you.