When you sue for damages after a personal
injury, you are generally doing so because you need compensation in order to
fully recover and get your life back on track. The financial keys to achieving
this are generally known as compensatory damages.
What do you need to know about the two main
types of compensatory damages? And how can this knowledge help you get what you
deserve from the at-fault party? Here are the answers to a few key
questions.
What Are Personal Injury Damages?
In legal terms, "damages" refers
to the financial loss a person suffered as a result of the incident - and
therefore the compensation they need. Damages may come in a variety of forms,
but two of the most common are also the most broad-reaching: general and
special damages. These types of damages attempt to translate both personal
suffering and future financial effects into a dollar amount that can be awarded
today.
How Do General and Special Damages
Differ?
"General damages" is a wide
category that tries to put a dollar figure to many non-economic issues. It
focuses on the physical and emotional damage you or your loved ones face,
including pain, suffering, mental health challenges, loss of companionship, and
permanent changes in one's life. These damages are not one-to-one compensation,
and they usually don't come with receipts.
Special damages focus more on the economic
fallout of your injury. This is where your medical, therapy, and rehabilitation
costs would be calculated. It may include lost wages or business earnings as
well as estimations of future earnings you will have lost due to your injuries.
Sometimes, more unusual costs could be included, such as fees from a sudden
change in plans due to the incident.
How Are General and Special Damages
Combined?
Both general and special damages have their
purposes, and a person often seeks a mix of both. But the right combination is
unique to your situation, so there is no one-size-fits-all percentage or dollar
amount of each.
For example, your injury may have resulted
in a hospital stay followed by therapy to get you back on your feet. You would
have lost wages when you couldn't work. But if you have made or will make a
full recovery, the focus of damages may be to compensate you for prior pain and
suffering, medical and care costs, and wages you already lost out on. General
damages for future costs may be minimal.
On the other hand, if you face a long
recovery or have permanent injuries, what happened in the past is only one half
- or less - of the overall puzzle. In this case, your attorney may spend
significant time calculating future lost income potential, future medical care,
ongoing therapy, or how your quality of life may have been changed.
How Are Damages Calculated?
Although they have different focuses, both
general and special damages are calculated using a mix of hard facts and
suppositions. Things like medical care, prosthetic devices, and burial costs of
a loved one can be determined through bills and price estimates. Past wages are
usually easy to identify using your earning history.
Other compensation is harder to pin down.
An expert may need to forecast lost future earnings by tracing your income
trajectory before and after the accident. And putting a number to the loss of
marital relations or the ability to hold one's children is even harder. There
are no set rules, so you would determine this number in conjunction with an
experienced personal injury specialist.
Clearly, personal injury damages are a
complicated subject. To get the best outcome, you need a qualified attorney
with experience in calculating both general and special damages. The Law Offices of Janice
Maloneycan help. Call today to discuss your case during a free
consultation.
