What is Permanency in a Car Accident Case?
In a typical injury case, you would have to prove that a Defendant did something wrong, that you were injured, and that the accident caused the injury. But in a car accident case, that’s not quite how it works, because there is an extra step: showing that your injury is permanent.
Why the Extra Step?
The requirement to show that you have a permanent injury, stems from Florida’s personal injury protection (PIP) insurance system. PIP allows you immediate access to medical insurance for injuries that stem from a car accident, regardless of fault.
You can be the one at fault, or nobody may be at fault—it doesn’t matter. PIP insurance will pay for most of your insurance bills, without you having to prove anything or show who caused the accident.
But those immediate insurance benefits come with a cost. In return for the immediacy of PIP benefits, the law makes it harder for an injured victim to collect additional damages against a liable, negligent driver. The victim needs to show that he or she has sustained what is known as a permanent injury.
Proving Permanency
This is sometimes easy to show, such as when the victim has sustained a catastrophic injury, and it’s clear the injury is permanent, but in other cases, it may not be so easy to prove.
You are allowed to recover and get better, to some degree, and still recover for injuries that stem from a car accident. What matters is whether or not, once you have fully recovered, you maintain some level of pain, disability or disfigurement, that will be with you forever.
How do you know if you have a permanent injury? That will be determined over a period of time, by your medical providers.
At some point, your doctor will essentially say “we’ve done all we can do, and we don’t anticipate any more improvement in your condition.” How long it takes for your doctor to say this, or whether or not he or she will ever say this, will depend on the type of injury and treatment that you have.
How Long Will it Take?
For patients that have multiple surgeries, it may take longer—the doctors will need to see how you recover from each surgery, and that will take time. In other cases, where someone perhaps gets physical therapy and some non-surgical treatment, the doctor may know whether your injury is permanent or not, much sooner.
Permanent or Severe?
Having a permanent injury does not necessarily mean that you need to be severely disabled, or have some catastrophic life altering injury. It just has to be permanent.
For example, many people with neck sprains or strains, can still live their life, go to work, and even engage in some level of physical activity. Still, they have pain on a regular basis, which gets better and worse, and that pain will be with them forever, making the injury permanent.
No matter what kind of injury you have after any kind of accident, we can help. Contact the Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian and schedule a consultation today.
Sources:
ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ama-guides/ama-guides-evaluation-permanent-impairment-overview
dol.gov/agencies/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/PolicyandProcedures/proceduremanualhtml/unifiedpm/Unifiedpm_part2/Chapter2-1300ImpairmentRatings
