How Much Compensation Can I Receive for Nerve Damage?

How much compensation you can receive for nerve damage depends on your unique situation. Our Pittsburgh personal injury lawyers can investigate your accident and injuries. Then, we can tell you how factors like the following may impact your claim or lawsuit:

• Your age
• The type of accident that caused the injury
• How serious the injury is
• How expensive your resulting medical bills are
• How your nerve damage has impacted your overall quality of life
• How much insurance coverage is available to you
• How much evidence connects your injury with your accident

How Your Situation Affects Your Nerve Damage Claim or Lawsuit

Nerve damage, formally known as peripheral neuropathy, can have a devastating impact on all areas of your life. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, the cause and consequences of this condition vary widely from person to person. How much compensation you can receive for nerve damage will depend on how this condition affects you specifically. Consider the following:

How Age Affects Nerve Damage Claims

Older injury victims may be more likely to sustain severe injuries that are difficult to treat. Younger and/or healthier victims may be able to recover from their injuries more easily and may therefore receive less compensation.

On the other hand, an older individual who is close to retirement may not be able to receive as much in lost earning capacity as a younger individual who had their entire career ahead of them and must now give up decades’ worth of potential wages, benefits, and promotions.

The Severity of Nerve Damage Injuries

After your accident, we advise seeking medical attention right away. Not only will getting an early diagnosis prevent the injury from getting worse, but proof of a doctor’s visit will also serve as a great form of evidence when building your case. The Mayo Clinic states that nerve damage symptoms may include:

• Sharp, burning pain
• Numbness in hands and feet
• Weak muscles
• Weak coordination
• Falling
• Sensitivity to touch
• Dizziness
• Change in your blood pressure
• Paralysis

Nerve damage can be treatable, but serious cases might entail a long road to recovery or result in permanent damage. The more serious your case, the more money you could potentially receive for both medical costs and pain and suffering.

How Nerve Damage Affects Quality of Life

Nerve damage symptoms, as explained above, can range from unsettling and unpleasant to permanently disabling. The extent to which your symptoms prevent you from living life the way you want to will influence your ultimate payout. For example:

• Having to learn how to use a wheelchair can be upsetting and stressful and force you to make huge changes to your lifestyle
• Pain and tingling can distract you from spending quality time with loved ones or engaging in favorite hobbies
• Disruptive symptoms (e.g., trouble gripping objects) can cause a loss of independence that requires you to ask for or hire help with everyday tasks, such as mowing the lawn, cooking meals, or walking the dog

The physical, emotional, and financial consequences of these factors will all influence how much money you receive for your injuries.

Insurance Companies and Your Nerve Damage Claim

The amount of money you can get from an insurance company depends on two things: policy limits and the insurer’s willingness to pay you.

For example, if you were injured in a car crash, your own insurance may only pay up to $5,000 worth of medical bills, per Page 3 of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s “Automobile Insurance Guide.” The insurer may resist paying even that much. Our personal injury attorneys can confront the insurance company on your behalf to make sure they reimburse you fairly.

The Cause of Your Nerve Damage Injuries Also Impacts Your Payout

As mentioned above, you may or may not be able to recover compensation from your own insurance company after an injury. For instance, while you should have access to medical benefits after a motor vehicle accident, you cannot rely on this coverage in the event of a premises liability accident.

Similarly, if your injury occurred on the job, you may have access to workers’ compensation benefits. If not, you would have to rely exclusively on what you can get in a personal injury claim or lawsuit.

You Must Prove the At-Fault Party Caused Your Nerve Damage

Another tactic the insurance company might try is attempting to “disconnect” your injury from your accident. They might say that you were already injured prior to the accident or that you were involved in a second accident or event that is the true cause of your pain.

You can counteract these accusations and prove you deserve a fair settlement by hiring our personal injury attorneys to collect evidence like:

• The official accident report from the Pennsylvania State Police and/or your local police department
• Medical records that prove you were diagnosed with nerve damage and that the accident is the most likely cause of that injury
• Statements from you and your loved ones concerning how the injury happened and its effects on your life
• Statements from your employer and coworkers about how the injury has impacted your ability to work
• Video or photographic evidence that demonstrates how the liable party’s negligence led directly to your accident

Types of Damages You Can Recover for Nerve Damage

Because there is no average settlement amount for nerve damage, which damages and how much you can recover depends on your case. However, there are two main types of damages that nerve damage victims can pursue after an accident: economic damages and non-economic damages.

Pursuing Economic Damages for Nerve Damage

These losses cover your financial damages, so calculating them may be as straightforward as reviewing your bills, receipts, and paystubs. They include:

• Emergency transportation
• X-rays, blood tests, and other diagnostic assessments
• Medication
• Assistive medical devices
• Surgeries
• Hospital stays
• Physical and/or chiropractic therapy
• Follow-up doctor’s appointments
• Lost wages
• Future lost earning capacity
• Lost job opportunities
• Vocational rehabilitation
• In-home care expenses
• Property damage

Pursuing Non-economic Damages for Nerve Damage

Unlike economic damages, non-economic damages refer to the emotional and physical hardships that were caused by your nerve damage. Examples might be:

• Pain and suffering
• Inconvenience
• Mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium
• Disability – one of our Pittsburgh Social Security Disability lawyers can give you a better understanding of how and if your injuries qualify you for Disability benefits
• Disfigurement

These lists are not exhaustive, but they can give you an idea of what you can recover. You can rely on our lawyers to assess and quantify all damages—you might even be entitled to pursue some that you do not know about yet.

Are There Limits on the Nerve Damage Compensation You Can Receive?

There is no maximum amount of compensation you can recover for damages in most personal injury cases. However, you might run into limits if:

• You want to pursue recovery for damages against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pa. C.S.A. § 8528 enforces a $250,000 limit per incident. This might be applicable to you if you were hit by a government vehicle or were involved in an accident on a state road, such as PA 5 or PA 28.
• The party you plan to sue is uninsured or underinsured. According to Page 2 of the “Automobile Insurance Guide,” car insurance is mandatory for all drivers in the commonwealth. That does not, however, mean that everyone follows the rules, and it can be more difficult to recover fair compensation from an uninsured/underinsured driver.
• Your policy limit is not high enough to accommodate the severity of your injury. As mentioned before, you can only recover damages up to your policy limit before you must start looking at other potential sources of compensation (e.g., a lawsuit against the at-fault party).
• You try to go back to work after qualifying for Disability benefits. There are strict income limits you must meet to continue receiving these benefits. If you make more than the income limit, you could lose your benefits.

Our personal injury law firm can help you navigate challenges like these and pursue the right amount of compensation based on your nerve damage and other injuries.

How Does Nerve Damage Happen?

Your accident could have occurred in a number of settings. We can assist with a wide array of accident types. Our legal team includes:

• Pittsburgh car accident lawyers: Page 6 of a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) report states that over 67,000 people were injured in motor vehicle accidents in 2022. That number includes not just car crashes but also motorcycle, truck, and pedestrian crashes, making traffic accidents a very common potential cause of nerve damage.
• Pittsburgh slip and fall accident lawyers: Older adults are especially likely to sustain serious injuries after slipping or tripping on someone else’s property. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly 28 percent of all Pennsylvania adults 65 and older suffered a fall in 2020. All of these individuals could be at risk of nerve damage.
• Pittsburgh swimming pool accident lawyers: Anyone who owns or maintains a pool should protect swimmers by ensuring they are monitored at all times (or posting warning signs about a lack of monitoring). Otherwise, someone—especially a child—could slip and hit their head, leading to nerve damage injuries.
• Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyers: Many of your nerves are closely intertwined with other body parts, such as tendons and vertebrae. One careless move or misdiagnosis from a doctor could do irreparable harm to your nerves.
• Pittsburgh work injury lawyers: Both acute injuries, like falls from heights, and repetitive stress injuries, like using the same tool for hours on end, can result in damage to your nerves.

If your accident did not occur in any of the above scenarios, do not let that stop you from reaching out. We still want to hear about your case to see if we can assist you in your pursuit of compensation.

How Our Lawyers Can Help You Receive Compensation for Your Nerve Damage

Suffering from nerve damage can restrict your mobility and take a toll on all areas of your health. Taking legal action might be the last thing you want to do.

If you hire our law firm, you can rest up while we manage the different aspects of your case for you. In addition to evaluating your damages, we can:

• Order the incident report
• Review your medical records 
• Talk to your medical team to get an idea of what your recovery will look like
• Gather photos of your injuries and the accident scene, if available
• Talk to accident witnesses
• Determine and name the liable party
• Communicate with all involved parties
• Negotiate a settlement on your behalf
• Represent you in court, if necessary

When to File Your Nerve Damage Lawsuit

Under Pa. C.S.A. § 5524, the state allows two years for people who suffered nerve damage due to another person’s negligence to take action. Failing to comply with this deadline might keep you from receiving compensation at all.

How much compensation you can receive for nerve damage depends, first and foremost, on whether you file your case within this statute of limitations. The sooner you get started, the easier it may be for us to protect your rights.

Get in Touch With Our Nerve Damage Attorneys Today

Call on Berger and Green to help you pursue the compensation you need to recover. During your call, we can discuss how much compensation you can receive for nerve damage and how we can help you file a claim or lawsuit.

Our nerve damage lawyers work for a contingency fee, so do not worry about paying us up front or hourly for our services. Once we win compensation for you, we will subtract our payment. You do not have anything to lose when hiring us, so call now for a free consultation.