Personal injury lawyers always talk about their clients being entitled to compensation for their injuries – but what, exactly, does that include? What kind of injuries can you actually claim compensation for in a lawsuit?
We’ve created a list of the types of compensation an injury victim can claim after an accident. It’s important to know that not every injury can sue for every type of compensation, and that some injuries may be awarded more than one kind.
Economic damages
If you are injured because of someone else’s negligence, abuse or neglect, you are entitled to economic damages – money that is given to you by the insurance company to take care of the bills and expenses you incurred. Economic damages are kind of like legal reparations: being injured cost you a lot of money, and you should get that money back if your injury was someone else’s fault. The most common economic damages include:
- Medical expenses, including prescriptions, hospital bills, doctors’ visits, special equipment or prosthetics, physical or occupational therapy, rehabilitation and counseling.
- Lost wages, including pay for the days you could not work and any pay you’ll lose out on in the future because your injury has rendered you unable to work in your field anymore.
- Property damage, like the cost of repairing or replacing a totaled car
Non-economic damages
While economic damages are pretty straight-forward, non-economic damages are a bit more subjective. That’s because your medical bills are a set number, but it’s difficult to place a value on a person’s quality of life. Most serious personal injury lawsuits fight for compensation for non-economic damages like:
- Pain and suffering from the injury
- Loss of quality of life
- Emotional distress
- Loss of society
- Loss of consortium (in a nutshell, the loss of marital relations)
- Humiliation
Think of it this way: if a car accident causes you to lose a leg, you can easily quantify how much money it costs to go to therapy or to get a prosthetic, and you can count up how much money you lost from not working. It’s not so easy to determine how much your ability to walk is worth. From our perspective, there’s no fair number for determining the value of walking, but in Tennessee your ability to walk is worth $750,000 at most.
Punitive damages
Sometimes called “punishment” damages, this type of compensation is awarded when your injury was caused by the malicious acts of another person. Thus, if you lose your leg because a person tries to mow you down with a car, you may be entitled to up to another $500,000 because there was intent to hurt you. Punitive damages are awarded most often in cases where a person is facing criminal charges in a different suit.
Compensation can be a bit tricky. Still have questions? It’s okay; we have the answers you seek.
Other Personal Injury 101 Entries:
Personal Injury 101: How Do I Know If I Have a Case?
Personal Injury 101: What is an Accident Reconstructionist?
Personal Injury 101: Loss of Consortium as non-Economic Damages
