Keeping track of your expenses, loss of work, and property destruction, and maintaining notes on your pain, stress, and mental anguish can help ensure that you, as the victim, receive an appropriate damage award. Your own record keeping will help provide a clear and accurate picture of the losses you’ve suffered after an accident. Keeping detailed and accurate notes memorializing your losses—both economic and non-economic—will help maximize your settlement.
You should keep records for your economic damages like medical bills, lost wages, tax returns, receipts for purchases (including those paid by insurance), and services you are unable to perform as a result of your injuries and lost property. Economic damages are costs you have to pay and income you have lost as a result of the injury. It is often necessary for an expert to calculate your expected lost earnings.
Maintaining records of all non-economic damages, including things not easily identified in terms of money lost, is important as well. You might include the physical and emotional pain you’ve endured and the stress caused by your accident. Humiliation and loss of companionship should also be taken into account. You should also make note of opportunities you missed out on because of your injury. Include trips you were planning but are no longer able to take, or experiences you can no longer enjoy.
Make sure you are honest when recording your losses. Exaggerating your damages can be detrimental to your case in the eyes of a jury. It is always best to state the truth and let the jury evaluate your losses.
