Sciatica Car Accident Compensation: What You Need To Know
Compensation is available to you if you suffered sciatica injury after a car accident in Michigan. It can include No-Fault insurance benefits, compensation for your pain and suffering and excess medical expenses and future lost wages and other economic damages depending on the severity of your injury.
What is sciatica after a crash?
Sciatica is the pain in the sciatic nerve that a victim suffers as a result of the trauma of a crash. The pain radiates down the victim’s sciatic nerve, branching out from the victim’s lower back and into his or her hips, buttocks and legs.
Sciatica car accident compensation for herniated disk, spinal injury
The pain associated with this injury is caused by the irritation, inflammation, pinching or compression of the sciatic nerve. Crash victims seek treatment often after suffering a herniated disk or traumatic injury to the lumbar spine. Low back pain and muscle spasm – connective tissue injury also referred to as soft tissue injury to the low back – can also impinge on the sciatic nerve and cause severe and disabling pain.
Symptoms
Symptoms include:
- Pain that radiates from the lower back and down into the hips, buttocks and legs
- The pain may vary from being a mild ache to sharp pain, including a burning sensation
- Numbness and weakness in those areas
- Pain gets worse with movement
- Severe restriction on and/or loss of movement
- “Pins and needles” feeling in legs, feet and toes
Surgery and sciatica car accident compensation
Insurance companies calculate compensation for this injury by looking at the duration and the extent of the medical treatment involved. This almost always starts with physical therapy. If conservative care does not resolve the pain from this injury, and you require lower back surgery, such as a discectomy or laminectomy surgery, that will be a significant factor in determining the amount awarded. A discectomy removes fragments of a herniated disk that put pressure on the sciatic nerve, whereas a laminectomy removes the portion of the spinal vertebra that is putting pressure on the nerve.
How to make a claim for No-Fault benefits?
You may be able to file a sciatica car accident compensation lawsuit for No-Fault insurance benefits if the auto insurance company that is responsible for paying your No-Fault benefits has denied your claim or refuses to pay or if your claim involves overdue wage loss and other PIP benefits. You will need to know what insurance benefits you are entitled to, how you must file a claim and how long you have to file a lawsuit. An experienced attorney can provide this information free of charge as part of an initial consultation.
Here are the key details you need to know:
- No-Fault PIP insurance benefits pay for a crash victim’s medical expenses, lost wages, medical mileage (transportation expenses for traveling to and from doctor and medical appointments), household replacement services and attendant care services.
- To be entitled to recover sciatica car accident compensation for No-Fault benefits after a crash in Michigan, you must file an application for No-Fault benefits – which is also called your “written notice of injury” – with the responsible auto insurance company within one (1) year after the crash. (MCL 500.3145(1) and (4)) If you fail to file your application on time – within ONE YEAR from the date of your automobile crash – then you will forever lose any benefits to which you might be entitled.
- A lawsuit for unpaid, overdue No-Fault insurance benefits must be filed within one year from the date that the medical bill, wage loss, medical mileage, replacement service or attendant service was incurred. (MCL 500.3145(2)) If such a claim is not filed within the one-year time period, then the bill will be time-barred and you will lose all rights to payment and/or reimbursement for the overdue benefits.
The No-Fault law’s “priority” rules will identify the auto insurer that is responsible for paying your No-Fault benefits and, thus, with whom you must file your application.
Generally, a crash victim will seek No-Fault benefits from auto insurance companies in the following order of priority: (1) The victim’s own auto insurance company; (2) the auto insurance company for the victim’s spouse or a relative who lives in the home; or (3) if No-Fault coverage is not available through any of those sources, then No-Fault benefits would be sought through the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan. (MCL 500.3114(1) and (4))
How to make a claim for pain and suffering
You may be able to file a sciatica car accident compensation claim against the at-fault (negligent) driver who caused your crash to recover pain and suffering compensation as well as excess medical expenses and lost wages and other economic damages for your injuries. To recover pain and suffering compensation, you must first show you suffered a “serious impairment of body function” under Michigan’s automobile crash injury threshold law.
Here is what you need to know:
- Your recovery in a sciatica car accident compensation case will largely be paid from the at-fault driver’s insurance. This is frequently referred to as liability insurance coverage or residual bodily injury coverage on an insurance policy. It is the amount of insurance that an individual purchases that will pay if they cause a crash.
- You have three (3) years after the date of the automobile crash under Michigan’s auto law to sue for pain and suffering and for excess medical benefits and excess economic loss. (MCL 600.5805(2))
Sciatica car accident compensation
In Michigan, if you have suffered a sciatica injury after a car accident that was a “serious impairment of body function,” then you can sue the at-fault, negligent driver for pain and suffering compensation as well as “excess” lost wages and medical bills, and other economic damages. These are in excess of what you will recover from your own insurance company in the form of No-Fault PIP benefits for wage loss and medical bills.
Pain and suffering compensation will cover: (1) physical pain and suffering; (2) mental anguish; (3) fright and shock; (4) denial of social pleasure and enjoyments; (5) embarrassment, humiliation or mortification; and (6) shame, mental pain and anxiety.
Excess lost wages cover your wage loss that exceeds the monthly maximum and/or beyond the three-year limit on No-Fault wage loss benefits.
Excess medical bills cover the cost of medical care that exceeds the No-Fault PIP medical benefits coverage level that was selected in the auto insurance policy through which you are claiming No-Fault benefits.
How much for sciatica car accident compensation?
The amount of compensation that you may be able to recover from a sciatica injury after a car accident will depend on: (1) unpaid, overdue No-Fault benefits you are owed; (2) your pain and suffering; (3) excess medical expenses and lost wages; (4) your lawyer’s track record; and (5) the at-fault driver’s liability insurance limits.
This is where your choice of a personal injury lawyer is particularly important. Auto insurance companies keep tabs on attorneys and they know who the attorneys are that go to trial and who the attorneys are that avoid trial and “settle short.”
The bottom line is that an experienced car accident attorney who is known for going to trial can usually settle sciatica cases for significantly more compensation and often much faster than attorneys who do not try cases.
To learn more about how much a settlement in your soft tissue automobile crash case may be worth, please check our “Settlement Calculator.”
What is the average sciatica compensation amount after a car accident?
Unfortunately, there is no public or private entity – at either the state or the national level – that collects, updates, reports and/or publishes data about the average amount of compensation for sciatica after a car accident in Michigan.
Injured in a car accident in Michigan? Call Michigan Auto Law now!
If you injured your sciatica in a car accident Michigan and you have questions about compensation, call now (800) 968-1001 for a free consultation with an experienced car accident lawyer. There is no cost or obligation. You can also visit our contact page or use the chat feature on our website.
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