Why You Need a Lawyer for Facial Scars from a Car Accident
Car accidents that cause severe damage and facial injuries can result in traumatic car accident scars or disfigurement. Dealing with such traumatic car accident injuries alone can be devastating.
Not only do they typically require expensive medical treatments and long recovery times, but scarring and disfiguring stemming from facial injuries can also have a significant impact on your emotional state and well-being.
Many accident victims who’ve suffered facial scarring injuries also experience symptoms of PTSD and other mental health issues for years or even the rest of their lives.
If you’ve experienced severe scars or disfigurement due to a car accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you can seek compensation through a claim or lawsuit.
Seeking a Permanent Disfigurement Lawsuit
Anyone who has suffered facial injuries deserves to be compensated for their physical and emotional suffering. Claims can also cover facial scarring and help alleviate financial burdens like medical bills and lost wages while your facial skin heals.
The facial scar law can be complex. Contact Crossen today to discuss your personal injury case with our team of experienced car accident attorneys in Indianapolis.
Proving negligence in the accident that led to your facial injuries involves demonstrating that the other party failed to exercise reasonable care, leading to the accident and your resulting injuries.
Indiana’s legal standards require you to provide evidence that proves these four things occurred:
- Duty of Care: The first step is establishing that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. In car accident cases, this duty is generally implied, as all drivers have a legal obligation to operate their vehicles safely and follow traffic laws to prevent harm to others.
- Breach of Duty: The plaintiff must show that the defendant breached this duty of care by acting (or failing to act) in a way that a reasonable person would not under similar circumstances.
- Causation: The plaintiff must prove that the defendant’s actions directly caused the accident. This means the accident (and subsequent injuries) would not have occurred without the defendant’s actions.
- Damages: The plaintiff must demonstrate that they suffered actual harm or damages due to the defendant’s breach of duty. This can include physical injuries, emotional distress, property damage, and financial losses.
Our compassionate team is here to help you receive the compensation you deserve.
If you sustained facial injuries in a car accident, contact an experienced personal injury lawyer at (866) 515-8016.
How Much Compensation Is Available for Facial Scarring Claims?
A facial injury claim compensates victims of serious injuries sustained in a car accident.
Indiana courts consider several factors in determining the appropriate payment:
- Age of the scarring victim: Younger individuals are more prone to permanent scarring, which can significantly impact their quality of life.
- Attempts to reduce scarring through medical treatments: A facial scar resistant to treatment, especially permanent scars, may result in higher compensation.
- Presentation of the scar: Size, color, and shape influence compensation. More prominent, visible scars often lead to larger settlements.
- Location of the scar: Courts value scars more prominently displayed on the face than those easily concealed.
- Disability caused by the scar: Scars affecting the range of motion or causing pain are integral to compensatory discussions.
- Psychological impacts: PTSD and self-consciousness from facial scarring can negatively affect mental health and are considered in compensation.
- Marital status and gender: Unmarried individuals and women have historically received more compensation for facial scars.
Trust our lawyers at Crossen Law Firm to secure the compensation you deserve for facial scarring. Contact us at (866) 515-8016 or contact our firm online.
What Does Compensation for Facial Injuries Pay for?
There is no set amount of compensation for serious car accident victims who file a facial injury or facial scar claim.
Typically, cases involving severe facial fractures, scarring, and disfigurement result in higher compensation amounts due to the extensive physical and emotional pain and suffering.
Factors that will affect how much money you receive include:
Medical treatment and bills: Covering expenses for medical treatment and healthcare services related to the injury sustained.
Therapy costs: Addressing the financial burden of therapy sessions needed for recovery and rehabilitation.
Other accident-related medical expenses include transportation costs, home modifications, or assistive devices required due to the injury.
Lost wages during recovery: Reimbursing for income lost due to incapacity to work.
Loss of future earning potential: Compensating for reduced earning capacity if the injury leads to long-term disability.
Car repair expenses: Covering costs for repairing or replacing damaged vehicles involved in the accident.
Property damage: This includes compensation for other personal property damaged or lost in the accident.
Physical pain and suffering: Reflecting the severity of physical discomfort endured due to the injury.
Emotional and psychological distress: Addressing the mental anguish and emotional impact resulting from facial scars from a car accident and the car accident claim itself.
Overall life impact: Evaluating the extent to which the accident and injuries affect your daily life and activities.
Experienced legal representation: Victims also tend to receive higher compensation when working with an attorney. Personal injury attorneys can help guide you through the legal process, advocate for your rights, and see that the extent of your pain and suffering is clearly evident to get the compensation you deserve.
The more evidence your attorney can provide to prove medical expenses, damaged property, and lost wages resulting from your facial injuries, the more money you will receive.
What Causes Facial Scarring in a Car Accident?
Facial scarring from a car accident can stem from various factors, each presenting its own set of challenges for victims.
Facial burns are often caused by contact with hot surfaces, flames, or dangerous chemicals.
Road rash, a painful condition resulting from friction between the skin and road surface, can lead to significant abrasions and scarring.
Shattered glass from car windows can cause deep cuts and lacerations on the face, resulting in facial scars. Additionally, facial injuries sustained from flying debris, such as broken glass or metal fragments, can leave lasting marks on the skin.
Impact during a car accident can also result in broken facial bones, causing disfigurement and scarring as the bones heal.
In severe cases, victims may require surgical procedures to address facial injuries, such as reconstructive plastic surgery or skin grafting. While essential for restoring function and appearance, these medical procedures can also leave raised or bumpy scars.
The resulting medical expenses and emotional distress from multiple complex surgeries and skin grafting can be overwhelming.
It’s important to note that anyone involved in a car accident, whether as a driver, passenger, or pedestrian, can sustain significant facial scarring.
Don’t face the legal process alone – let Crossen Law Firm guide you through your facial injury claim. Contact Crossen Law Firm at (866) 515-8016 or contact our firm online.
Types of Facial Scars from a Car Accident
Four common types of facial scars can result from an auto, industrial, or animal bite accident:
Keloid Scars form due to excess collagen production during healing and are characterized by a bumpy texture that can extend beyond the original injury. Treatment options include surgical removal, steroid injections, cryotherapy, laser therapy, and silicone sheets.
Contracture Scars occur during healing from large, sheet-like burns. They cause tightness in the skin and affect facial movement, muscles, and nerves. Treatments include splinting, pressure dressing, and exercises to improve range of motion.
Hypertrophic Scars, like keloid scars, result from the healing process but do not extend past the original injury boundaries. Hypertrophic scars may disappear over time or can be treated with silicone sheet application and steroid injections.
Atrophic Scars are characterized by a sunken or pitted appearance on the skin’s surface. People may be familiar with this type of scar because it’s common in severe acne cases. Still, atrophic facial scars can also be caused by injuries that cause the loss of underlying fat or muscle tissue.
What Constitutes a Disfiguring Injury?
Car accidents can result in injuries, but not all severe injuries are disfiguring. However, having an injury labeled as disfiguring is crucial because it affects how much compensation you will receive when you file a personal injury claim or even a lawsuit.
Because physical and emotional pain and suffering are worse for those who suffer from scarring and disfigurement injury, their pain and suffering damages are considered more significant.
Victims of disfiguring facial scars are typically awarded more compensation than those with less severe injuries because these types of facial injuries cause tremendous emotional distress.
Generally, an injury is considered scarring or disfiguring if it alters a person’s physical appearance significantly.
These severe types of facial injuries can have a tremendous impact on victims. For example, many kinds of facial injuries change how someone looks and result in a disability, such as the loss of a leg, an arm, or an eye.
Common Injuries that Lead to Disfigurement
Tragically, the areas of the body that are most likely to become deformed in a car accident include the arms, hands, and face because they’re more exposed than other areas of the body.
Although any disfigurement can lead to severe emotional and mental problems, facial disfigurement is especially difficult to live with and can lead to severe psycho-social issues, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
A facial scar or other disfigurement impacts a victim’s quality of life and ability to find employment.
A few of the most common facial injuries and car accident-related injuries that can lead to permanent disfigurement include:
Abrasions: Scrapes or abrasions to the face can result in superficial wounds or serious soft tissue injuries or loss, which may heal with permanent scarring and textural changes, contributing to facial disfigurement.
Amputations: Traumatic amputations or avulsions of facial tissues, such as ears, nose, or lips, can cause permanent disfigurement and functional impairment, necessitating reconstructive surgery or prosthetic intervention.
Blunt Force Trauma: Impact injuries to the face from blunt objects, a steering wheel, or airbag deployment can cause soft tissue damage, contusions, and lacerations, leading to visible scars, scar tissue, and facial deformities.
Burn Injuries: Severe burns from car accidents can cause significant damage to the skin and underlying tissues, resulting in permanent scarring, contractures, and disfigurement.
- First-degree burns typically affect only the outer layer of the skin and usually heal without scarring within a few days to a week. In rare cases, severe first-degree burns that cover a large area of the face may result in minor scarring, but permanent disfigurement is unlikely.
- Second-degree burns often result in blisters, discoloration, and redness that may leave permanent scarring.
- Third-degree burns can cause one’s skin to appear white, leathery, and deformed, potentially causing permanent nerve and bone damage.
Deep Facial Lacerations: Deep cuts or lacerations to the face can cause extensive damage to the skin, underlying tissues, and facial structures, resulting in severe scarring and disfigurement.
Fractures: Facial fractures, such as those involving the nose, cheekbones, or jaw, can alter facial symmetry and contour, leading to visible deformities and lasting facial disfigurement.
Nerve Damage: Traumatic injuries to facial nerves can lead to sensory and motor deficits, affecting facial muscle movement, sensation, and expression. Permanent nerve damage can result in asymmetry, drooping, or paralysis of facial muscles and features, contributing to facial disfigurement.
Don’t suffer from the financial burden of medical bills and lost wages. Call Crossen Law Firm today at (866) 515-8016 or contact our personal injury team online. Leveraging extensive research and proven strategies, we confidently navigate through the intricacies of the law to advocate effectively on your behalf.
Common Causes of Car Accident-Related Face Injuries
There are various ways facial injuries can occur in a car crash. For instance, impact on the airbag may cause bruising or burns, while collisions with the steering wheel or dashboard can also result in facial trauma.
Other potential causes include:
- Striking the cracked section of a windshield or window, particularly on the driver’s side of the vehicle.
- Being ejected from the car and impacting the windshield or pavement.
- Being struck in the face by a projectile that penetrates the windshield.
- Objects within the vehicle become projectiles and hit the face.
- Sustaining burn injuries to the face due to fires or explosions.
Other Than Auto Accidents, What Causes Facial Scarring and Disfiguring Injuries?
Other types of accidents can cause eye injuries, facial scarring, and devastating facial injuries, including:
- Dog attacks
- Bicycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Workplace accidents
- Fires
- Medical malpractice
- Explosions
- Physical assault and abuse
If you’ve suffered facial trauma, call (866) 515-8016 or contact our personal injury team online. Stay informed with our latest insights on legal developments that could impact your case, presented in a clear and accessible format.
The Emotional Impact of Dealing with Car Accident Scars and Disfigurement Injury
Car accident facial scars and disfigurement injuries that physically alter your appearance can haunt you for the rest of your life, leaving you both physically and emotionally scarred. Because of the traumatic nature in which these kinds of injuries occur, many people who suffer facial injuries will develop symptoms of PTSD.
Car accidents without injuries can be traumatic and have a negative, lifelong impact on everyone who saw or experienced the accident.
When they result in severe physical injuries that leave a person with facial scarring and disfigurement, it can be even more traumatic.
Unfortunately, it’s expected that facial scarring injuries permanently reduce quality of life and increase the risk of developing emotional stress like depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Some of the signs that can signal that a person is suffering emotionally after an accident include:
- Nightmares
- Depression
- Detachment
- Mood swings
- Trouble sleeping
- Avoidance
- Excessive fear, shame, or anger
- Violent outbursts
- Loss of interest in activities
- Loss of interest in being social
- Negative and intrusive thoughts
- Destructive and reckless behavior
These mental health-related symptoms and behaviors can be debilitating, even if the victim doesn’t feel like they’re severe. They may significantly affect a person’s ability to function or live their life.
Car accidents, facial injuries, and extensive recovery times result in damaged relationships, lost careers, debilitating anxiety, and financial burdens that require years of treatment, therapy, or counseling.
If you are emotionally suffering from facial scarring or disfiguring injury, don’t delay getting the support you deserve.
Therapy and counseling can be expensive, but you have a right to have these expenses covered as part of your facial scarring and disfigurement injury lawsuit.
Victims who work with lawyers are typically awarded more money because they have an expert handling their case and advocating for their rights.
To ensure you get the money you deserve to help cover the cost of therapy and other expenses, contact an Indianapolis personal injury attorney.
Don’t face the aftermath of a car accident alone – let Crossen Law Firm’s skilled attorneys support you. Call (866) 515-8016 or contact our firm online today. Our attorneys break down complex legal processes into clear, actionable steps, empowering you to make informed decisions.
Types of Scarring and Disfigurement Injuries From Motor Vehicle Accidents
Severe scarring and disfiguring injuries can happen anywhere on the body. When you suffer from severe or a severe scarring injury, you will often require many lengthy treatments and surgeries to help you recover.
Even after plastic surgery and comprehensive recovery treatments, many victims are left with extensive scarring and deformities.
In many cases, the loss of a limb or amputation may be necessary to save your life and to keep other areas of your body from being affected.
Common types of disfiguring injuries can include:
- Severe facial injuries
- Scarring from thermal, chemical, or electrical burns
- Severe lacerations and puncture wounds that result in deformities or scarring
- Amputations or loss of limbs
- Loss of eyes
- Deformities from broken bones
- Spinal cord injuries
- Severe head injuries
Don’t underestimate the impact of facial lacerations, facial scarring, and other facial scar injuries – let Crossen Law Firm fight for your rightful compensation. We understand the challenges you face and are here to offer compassionate support and dedicated legal counsel. Call us today at (866) 515-8016.
How Are Scars and Disfiguring Injuries Treated?
Treatment for facial scar revision can vary greatly depending on the injury sustained and its severity. Often, scarring and disfiguring injuries require a series of treatments and surgeries to heal. However, even once the wounds have healed and scarred over, it can take years or even a lifetime for serious injury victims to recover from the emotional damage caused by such an injury.
The various treatments for a facial scar and disfiguring injuries can include:
- Surgery
- Skin grafts
- Amputations
- Cosmetic surgery
- Dental surgery
- Stitches
- Casts
- Reconstructive surgery
- Facial scar revision surgery
- Prosthetics
- Implants
- Cortisone injections
- Collagen injections
- Cryosurgery
- Laser resurfacing
- Rehabilitation
- Physical therapy
Some scars may fade after reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, and prosthetics can be used to help the victim regain a relatively normal appearance again.
If you or a loved one has suffered facial injuries, contact Crossen today at (866) 515-8016 to discuss your car accident facial injuries with our team of experienced car accident attorneys in Indianapolis.
Contact Crossen Law Firm for Facial Scars from a Car Accident
Discussing your case with an experienced and trustworthy scarring and disfigurement injury lawyer can help you during this trying time.
We uphold the highest standards of professionalism to ensure your trust in our legal knowledge.
At Crossen Law Firm, our professional team will fight tirelessly on your behalf to help you get what you are owed, and you will only owe us something if we win your case. You have the right to receive fair compensation for your injuries.
Make the right call about your case today. Call the Indianapolis Crossen Law Firm at (866) 515-8016 or contact our firm online.
Why Crossen Law Firm?
Call our office today at (317) 401-8626 to discuss your case.