A personal-injury claim may seek compensation for harm caused by legally responsible conduct. The available categories and amounts depend on the claim, evidence, defenses, insurance or assets, repayment interests, and the forum.

Compensation is a set of supported loss categories constrained by liability, causation, coverage, defenses, and procedure.

Establish liability before valuing loss

Identify the duty, breach, actual and proximate cause, responsible parties, and defenses. Serious injury does not establish fault, and clear fault does not establish the medical consequences.

Past medical care and expense

  • Complete treatment records, imaging, testing, diagnoses, procedures, rehabilitation, restrictions, and response
  • Itemized charges, payments, contractual adjustments, patient balances, denials, and explanations of benefits
  • Relationship of each service to the event and claimed condition
  • Other payers, provider balances, and repayment interests

North Carolina Rule of Evidence 414 limits evidence offered to prove past medical expenses to amounts actually paid for satisfied bills and amounts actually necessary to satisfy incurred but unpaid bills.

Future medical care

A future-care claim should identify the service, medical reason, frequency, duration, provider, probability, cost basis, and relationship to the injury. Separate expected care from a possibility and account for unrelated or preexisting needs.

Income loss and earning capacity

  • Job duties, schedules, attendance, wages, overtime, leave, restrictions, and accommodations
  • Tax and business records for self-employment, separating revenue from profit
  • Actual post-event earnings and efforts to work within restrictions
  • Qualified vocational or economic analysis when long-term capacity is disputed

Function, pain, impairment, and disfigurement

Document the task, frequency, duration, assistance, adaptation, equipment, rest, and comparison with baseline. Medical and lay evidence can describe different aspects of effect, but repetition and extreme adjectives do not substitute for specificity.

Property and out-of-pocket loss

Preserve repair or replacement evidence, rental or transportation expense, medication, equipment, mileage, home modification, assistance, and other documented costs. Avoid combining the same expense in more than one category.

Use qualified opinion when the issue requires it

Rule 702 requires sufficient facts or data, reliable principles and methods, and reliable application to the facts for qualifying expert testimony.

Map insurance and collectability

  • Policy type, insured, limit, exclusion, reservation, priority, and multiple claimants
  • No-fault, medical-payments, uninsured or underinsured motorist, umbrella, commercial, benefit, or government coverage
  • Assets and collectability when coverage is absent or disputed
  • Separate claims, releases, and settlement effects among several parties

Calculate the net result

Subtract fees, case expenses, medical balances, health-plan or government repayment, and other obligations from the gross amount. Record which figures are final, estimated, disputed, or subject to later adjustment.

Protect the filing period and settlement choices

G.S. 1-52 includes a three-year period for many injury actions, but another claim or party can change the result. A settlement release may end rights permanently, so medical status, future care, repayment, net terms, and alternatives should be reviewed before signing.

The related personal-injury valuation guide explains evidence-supported ranges and assumptions.

Rosensteel Fleishman Car Accident & Injury Lawyers provides information about personal-injury compensation in Charlotte and North Carolina. The map should show the source and uncertainty for every component.

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