Damages in Your Personal Injury Case

Damages in Your Personal Injury Case
If you have been injured in an accident, and another party is to blame, you may be able
to obtain monetary damages from that person or business to compensate you for
medical expenses, loss of income and pain and suffering as a result of the accident.
There are a variety of types of damages allowed in personal injury cases. Those
damages can be divided into several categories. First, there are compensatory damages
and punitive damages. There are also two types of compensatory damages: economic
and non-economic.
Compensatory damages are damages that are intended to compensate a person for a
loss or problem relating to a personal injury, including monetary losses, pain and
suffering and physical impairment. Punitive damages are intended to punish the
negligent party for its wrongdoing, and aren’t specifically related to a loss the plaintiff
suffered.
For example, if a company decided to dump toxic waste
into a creek instead of disposing of it safely, and as a
result a woman living next to the creek developed cancer,
her compensatory damages may include amounts for her
medical expenses, her lost wages, and her pain and
suffering. In addition to these damages, the jury may also
decide to award punitive damages, which are strictly
intended to punish the company for its wrongdoing.
Punitive damages are somewhat rare – in most cases,
plaintiffs only receive compensatory damages.

Compensatory damages can be further divided into
economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those damages
that result in an identifiable economic loss. For example, economic damages include
medical expenses, lost wages, the cost of hiring a helper or nurse, and the cost of special
transportation or medical equipment that’s needed as a result of the accident.


Non-economic damages are damages for harm relating to the injury sustained that are
difficult to quantify using a specific dollar amount. Instead, non-economic damages are
awarded to a person who has suffered a diminished quality of life as a result of the
accident. Some examples of non-economic damages include emotional distress, pain
and suffering, embarrassment or humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of
consortium (sexual relations) and scarring or disfigurement. Although non-economic
losses can be difficult to quantify, they are an important component of a personal injury
case.

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