Thread: Types of damages in a personal injury case

There are three different types of damages that are available to you in a personal injury case.
They are:
Special Damages
General Damages
Punitive Damages.
Special Damages:
Special damages are those capable of being proven to an exact amount, usually with the help of bills and/or receipts. Special damages typically consist of medical bills, medications, and over-the-counter medical equipment like heating pads, bandages, etc. Special damages also include lost wages, lost vacation, lost sick leave, and travel expenses - traveling to/from your medical appointments. You are normally entitled to lost wages for the time missed from work or undergoing treatments even if your employer paid you sick leave at the time.

General damages:
General damages are incapable of exact proof and are normally the "pain and suffering" you endured from the accident. This includes emotional damages such as stress, anxiety, and depression. It also includes lost social and family events, such as having to missed a loved one's birthday or a high school graduation for example. Finally, general damages also include any permanent physical disability or disfigurement. There is no formula for determining these types of damages. Many attorneys and insurance companies will use a multiple of your special damages to come up with this number.

Punitive damages
The third category of damages are punitive damages. Punitive damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer and are not available in every type of case. Punitive damages are extra damages that a jury awards on top of the other two types of damages. There are tremendous strategic advantages to pursuing these types of damages in your case. For example, attorneys are not normally allowed to show the jury a defendant's other prior, bad acts. But if your attorney seeks punitive damages, your attorney should be able to get this evidence in. Your attorney should look for every possible reason to obtain punitive damages because it puts huge pressure on the defendant in both discovery and at trial.

Factors That Increase/Decrease Your Case's Value

There are many, many factors that affect the value of your case and each case is different. You should always have a candid conversation with your attorney regarding what is affecting your case's value both before you attempt pre-suit settlement negotiations and before going to trial. The following issues will affect the value of your case, but is not intended to be an all inclusive list:

* Your Age.The younger or older you are, the better your case is. Children aged 1-12 generally have outstanding settlement results. So do people in their late 60's and older because of the sympathy the elderly create from the jury. That leaves people ages 13-59. These individuals do not receive the same sympathy of both the very young and the elderly.
* Type of Injury. Obviously the more severe your injuries, the more your case is going to be worth. Severe injuries also affect the general damages because the more severe injuries are usually assumed to have more severe general damages associated with them. Compare this with Minor Impact Soft Tissue cases.
* Objective Signs of Injury. When a doctor examines you, there are subjective and objective findings. Subjective findings are those things that can't be measured or reproduced on paper. Usually, they are the things you tell your doctor you are experiencing. Objective findings, on the other hand, are measurable. This includes such things as MRI's, measuring range of motion, and lab reports. The more objective findings your case has that supports your case, the more valuable your case becomes because your injuries are not just you saying what they are, but are supportable by tests and measurements.
* Your Attorney. This is probably the biggest factor in changing the value of your case THAT YOU CAN CONTROL. Think about it. All the other items in this list are set in stone. The facts are what they are. But your attorney is different. Insurance companies track which attorneys file lawsuits and which go for quick settlements. This changes the value of your case. Also, an aggressive plaintiff's attorney will be constantly pushing the other side. This can add tremendous value to a case because you are putting pressure on the defense attorneys as well as their clients.
* What Kind of Witness You Are. This is always a big factor in the defense valuing your case. In fact, one of the primary reasons for taking your deposition is to see what kind of witness you are going to make in front of a jury. That is why your deposition preparation is so critical. It will affect the value of your case.
* What Kind of Witness Is The Other Driver. Juries tend to focus on emotional decisions and bad behavior. If the other driver or other defendants show bad behavior or bad decisions, the jury will respond. For example, was the other driver DUI, unremorseful, calling his girlfriend instead of calling for medical help? Did the trucking company rush investigators to the scene instead of calling for help, did they attempt to destroy evidence, did the apologize?
* Other witnesses. The more unbiased witnesses you have in your favor, the stronger your case is. Your attorney wants, whenever possible, for your case to be more than your word against the other driver's. Your attorney should also be looking for witnesses that can testify about your pain and suffering, but who are not family members who are biased in your favor.
* Venue. This simply means the court/county where your case would be filed. As a general rule, metro counties are more favorable to plaintiffs than rural counties, which are more conservative. But, and as an example of how subtle all this is, if you make a very genuine, sympathetic witness for yourself, rural, conservative juries have been known to relate and award more money.
* Percentage of Fault. In some cases a jury will divide up fault among you and the defendants. They can also apportion fault among multiple defendants.
* Prior Injuries Also known as pre-existing conditions, these are injuries you sustained to the same body parts you are saying were hurt in your current accident. Defense attorneys or personal injury lawyer will comb through your medical records looking for any injury to argue you were not hurt in this accident, but another one. The rub is that you are entitled to damages even if you suffer from previous injuries to the same area. What this factor does do is cause a jury to discount your injuries by a certain amount.
* Property Damage. Your car should look like it supports what happens to you. In other words, almost no jury is going to award huge damages for a scratched bumper. But, if the car looks totaled, then there is visual evidence the jury can use to support its decision.
* Doctors Comments. Your medical records will have notes the doctor made commenting on your condition and the statements you made to him/her. Juries listen to doctors. If you have a doctor writing in your medical chart that you are faking your injuries, then you have a problem. You can bet the other side will bring that doctor to court.
* Time. The more patient and prepared you and your attorney are, the more you case will increase over time. Typically, you case will bump up in value at two different points. First, you will reach one value in pre-suit negotiations. Your case will then take a bump in value right before trial, when both sides try to settle the case right before trial. This is especially true if you and your attorney have performed extremely well during litigation.

The given content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended for a legal advice.

There is no option .Only medical equipment can fulfill the all other related area which is very very vital and unavoidable and everlasting.It is very pivotal role and so on and so forth.

DjBoom:

Good textbook explanation as to damages. But, in the real world, many if not most potential "Plaintiffs" are not damaged "legally". There is a local NY television commercial by a personal injury firm that is great, perhaps too great. They just added a new "ending" to this ongoing commercial...."BUT REMEMBER, YOU MUST REALLY BE INJURED".

Vincent Haller Smith, JD
East Coast Loss Control, LLC - Insurance investigations

Dear DJboom,
I believe there is room for improvement of this traditional classification of damages.All damages are monetory,which means a sum of money.But the loss is not always monetary.The loss caused by personal injury can be divided into types:ecomonic loss and non-ecomonic loss/emotional loss.I don't believe that permanent physical disability is pure emotional loss.It's a combination of emotional loss and loss of earning capacity,which is a kind of emonomic loss.

By giving the types of injury, it is now clear to me on how to deal with issues like this.

Originally Posted by jessiebiel

By giving the types of injury, it is now clear to me on how to deal with issues like this.

I feel the same jessie, good thing there's a post like this one. Personal Injury Claim Lawyer

I think some of those can be kind of hard to prove. If you plan on suing for certain things that have no papertrail, you should create your own. Get statements from friends, and document everything that happens.

That's a nice and accurate information provided here, i am a privatdetektiv by profession and i have also solved many cases in past for our nation, i must say the way of you declaration is awesome.