The injuries that result from car crashes can put people in the hospital, sometimes for weeks on end. An individual who has a compound or open fracture will require surgery to set and clean the broken bone and then weeks of recovery time to allow their body to heal. Those with traumatic brain injuries might be unconscious for some time after the crash and may require extensive rehabilitation care to regain skills affected by their injury before going back to work.
In some scenarios, those who have been injured in a car crash may not ever be able to return to their prior employment because of the lasting physical limitations that they have sustained. Although many Texas motorists expect that car insurance will take care of them while they are unable to work after a crash, many people find out after getting hurt that there isn’t enough coverage to fully reimburse them for their losses.
Many drivers have insufficient medical coverage
Texas does require that every driver with a registered vehicle carry insurance if they want to operate that vehicle on public roads. There are some people who have no insurance at all because they fail to make payments or they intentionally cancel their policies. There are others who only carry the bare minimum liability coverage Texas law requires.
These drivers carry the mandated $25,000 of bodily injury liability coverage in a crash where one person gets hurt, which will increase to $50,000 of coverage if they hurt two or more people in a single incident. Even if someone earns minimum wage, $25,000 won’t go very far to replace their wages, especially when considering how that same coverage also applies to their medical costs.
If someone’s leave of absence will last more than a few weeks after a wreck, they could very well find themselves in need of more support than what insurance will provide. In such cases, personal injury claims can be a viable option for those left struggling financially because of the personal and professional consequences of a car crash.
Seeking legal assistance in order to quantify the financial consequences of a recent motor vehicle collision can help someone better navigate an insurance claim and identify when a lawsuit may be necessary.