If a driver hits you while you are walking in Jonesboro, the consequences can continue long after the crash. You may face medical bills, missed work, pain, permanent limitations, and future treatment needs. Georgia law allows you to seek compensation for losses caused by another person’s negligence, but a financial recovery depends on the evidence and whether you share fault. Below, Butler Kahn clarifies the damages available after a pedestrian accident in Jonesboro.
Medical expenses are often a part of a serious pedestrian accident claim. Your damages may include ambulance transportation, emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, diagnostic testing, medication, physical therapy, rehabilitation, follow-up visits, assistive equipment, and reasonably necessary future care. If your injuries require ongoing treatment, your claim should account for those expected costs.
Georgia’s medical-expense statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1, limits recovery to the reasonable value of medically necessary care, treatment, and services. This means that the judge or jury would be responsible for determining the reasonable value of treatment made necessary by the accident.
If your injuries keep you from working, you may seek compensation for income lost during recovery. Pay records, tax documents, employer statements and records can help establish what you would have earned.
A serious pedestrian injury can also reduce your future earning capacity. Permanent restrictions may prevent you from returning to the same job, working the same hours, or performing the same duties. O.C.G.A. § 51-12-13 governs future medical expenses, lost wages, and other economic losses. Under this law, the judge or jury may determine what future losses are worth in today’s dollars. Medical and employment evidence may be important when future earning ability is disputed.
Your claim is not limited to expenses and lost income. A serious pedestrian injury may also cause physical pain, emotional suffering, inconvenience, impairment, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. These losses may be significant when an injury interferes with your mobility, independence, sleep, family responsibilities, or activities you previously enjoyed.
O.C.G.A. § 9-10-184 allows your lawyer to argue for a specific value for noneconomic damages at trial, as long as that amount is supported by the evidence. These damages do not come with receipts or a fixed formula, so the evidence must show how the injury has affected you. Medical records, photographs, testimony about your symptoms and limitations, and evidence of changes in your daily activities can help establish the seriousness and duration of these losses.
Your own conduct can directly affect the compensation you recover. Under Georgia’s comparative fault statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. If your damages were valued at $100,000 but you were found 20 percent responsible, your recovery would generally be reduced by 20 percent. If you are 50 percent or more responsible, the statute bars recovery.
In a Jonesboro pedestrian accident, where and how you crossed can matter. Georgia’s crosswalk statute, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-91, generally requires a driver to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk when the statutory conditions are met. It also prohibits a pedestrian from suddenly entering a vehicle’s path when it is impractical for the driver to yield. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-92 generally requires a pedestrian crossing outside a marked or qualifying unmarked crosswalk to yield to vehicles in the circumstances described by the statute. Because partial fault can reduce your recovery, video footage, witness statements, photographs, and other evidence can be important.
Punitive damages are different from compensation for medical expenses, lost income, or pain and suffering. Their purpose is to punish and deter especially serious misconduct, and they are not available merely because a driver was negligent. Georgia limits punitive damages to $250,000, but O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1 removes that cap in certain cases, including when the person who caused the injury was impaired by alcohol or drugs.
If a pedestrian dies from collision-related injuries, Georgia law permits recovery through wrongful death and estate claims. Georgia’s wrongful death valuation law, O.C.G.A. § 51-4-1, provides that the value of the decedent’s life is calculated without subtracting necessary or personal living expenses.
O.C.G.A. § 51-4-5 allows the personal representative of the decedent’s estate to recover funeral, medical, and other necessary expenses resulting from the injury and death. Also, under O.C.G.A. § 9-2-41, the pedestrian’s estate may pursue claims for injuries and losses the pedestrian suffered before death.
Butler Kahn has an A+ BBB rating and has secured significant recoveries for pedestrian accident victims, including a $30 million settlement for a Georgia school student struck in a pedestrian crosswalk. You only get one chance at this. Make it count. If you were injured in Jonesboro or elsewhere in Clayton County, contact Butler Kahn by calling (678) 940-1444 or contacting us online for a free consultation with a Jonesboro pedestrian accident lawyer.
