What does Mitigating damages mean? Basically this a term used describe the reasonable steps you need to take to alleviate the consequences. I know what you are thinking “Why should I have to? The accident wasn’t my fault!”, but in the legal world laws are always trade-offs between things being bad and total bedlam. As a community, we want everyone as active and forthright as possible. Anything to encourage the opposite should be discouraged. So for example you are an accident, and the doctor takes you off work for three days. At this point the other party is responsible for your medical bills and the three days of lost wages. After this three day period the doctor clears you to go back to work, but you decide on your own to be off for another week past the three days. You’re thinking that that will be include with your lost wage claim. The answer to this is no the adjuster will only consider what is medically necessary and ordered by a physician. So he or she will only consider the days the doctor ordered, or time that is missed for treatments or appointments. You should contact a personal injury lawyer Arlington TX trusts so that we can advise you of these situations. Even though you think you are following all the steps, you might actually be missing some things that can hurt your case later.
Mitigating damages also applies to property damage. Another example would be that you are in an accident where your vehicle is taken to an impound lot, and there are extenuating circumstance that cause the the investigation process to take an extended period of time. It is your duty to make sure the vehicle is moved to a location were it will not accrue fees, or if you have comprehensive and collision coverage on your own insurance they can do this for you. If you don’t the insurance company could choose to only consider a small portion of the time and deduct the rest from the amount they were going you for your vehicle leaving you in a worse situation.
So as you can see mitigating your damages that you have suffered from someone else’s negligence or recklessness is extremely important to ensuring that you are fully compensated for your damages. The best way to make sure you are mitigating your damages is to follow your doctor’s orders, and contact a skilled attorney.
Thanks to our friends and contributors from Brandy Austin Law Firm PLLC for their insight into migrating damages.