Disfigurement After a St. Louis Car Accident – What Are Your Rights?

An experienced attorney can help ensure your rights are protected after a St. Louis car accident involving disfigurement.

Car accidents are a common cause of permanent scarring, disfigurement, and amputations. Long-term injuries usually lead to lengthy car accident claim processes because the MMI (maximum medical improvement) point might be somewhere in the victim’s distant future. 

Filing a claim for disfigurement is a very specific case amongst car accident claims. It presents some unique nuances, like emotional distress, limitation of professional advancement (depending on the job,) and so on.

Let’s see what can be considered disfigurement in a legal case and what the victim should do to ensure the best outcome. 

Mental Distress Caused by Disfigurement

“Pain and suffering” is a legal phrase that defines the non-economic damages an injured person sustains. It can refer to mental distress, emotional damage, increased susceptibility to or aggravation of mental disorders. 

Disfigurement is one of the injuries that impact personal injury victims profoundly, especially if their scars are easily noticeable. Face disfigurement is one of the most serious types of disfigurements for a victim, but arms, legs, and scalp affected by scars and deformities may also inflict a lot of distress on them. 

Here are some of the most common disfigurements caused by car accidents:

• Burn scars
• Scarring 
• Amputations, whether partial or total 
• Limping, other changes in mobility
• Modified bone structure

What Are You Entitled To?

Putting a monetary value on the distress caused by disfigurement can be a difficult task. When it comes to pain and suffering, the compensation value is usually calculated by applying a multiplying factor (x2, x3, etc.) to the total economic damages the victim has suffered. Sometimes, the compensation’s value is exponentially greater and expressed by a round, impactful sum when the case is so bad that the victim’s life is impacted severely by the disfigurement. 

While it may be difficult to say exactly how much compensation you are truly entitled, a good place to start is by speaking with an experienced attorney who can evaluate the specifics of your claim.

Some of the most important factors that will influence this amount are:

• Where the scar or disfigurement is located (how visible it is)

• Whether the scar is permanent or not, treatable or not

• The age of the victim, as young and very young persons can be more affected by such injuries

• The victim’s career, formation, profession: a model, for instance, will be greatly affected by a disfigurement that won’t let them work in that industry anymore. 

As you can see, there are many factors to take into account in a disfigurement case. Let an experienced St. Louis auto accident attorney represent you in this difficult process and fight for the full and fair amount of compensation you are entitled to.