If the livestock owner is liable for the livestock accident, he (or more likely, his insurance company) will be responsible for paying you your damages and “making you whole” again. So what do your damages entail?
Damages resulting from a livestock accident can vary immensely. Perhaps you may be lucky and escape from the incident unscathed and with just a minor dent to your car. If the damage is minor, a claim may not even be worth pursuing. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the accident may prove to be fatal. It would not be the first time that a livestock accident unfortunately resulted in a tragic death to an unsuspecting driver. In the case of a fatal accident, the driver’s heirs will have a wrongful death claim.
In most cases, however, your damages will probably fall somewhere in between.
Generally, your damages from a livestock accident will include the following:
- special damages for your medical expenses
- lost income
- general damages for pain and suffering
- property damage to your vehicle.
Special damages for medical expenses often include bills for the following:
- Ambulance
- Emergency Room
- Emergency Room X-Rays
- Hospital surgeries
- Medications
- Casts or collars
- Primary care doctor
- Specialists
- Physical therapists
- Chiropractors
While there is no absolute or precise way to put a monetary amount on general damages, general damages (pain and suffering) are often proportional in some way to one’s special damages. For example, depending on your case, the insurance adjustor, and your attorney, the general damages may be two or three times the amount of the special damages.