If someone is responsible for an injury or accident in which you endure apersonal injury, you may be permitted to collect damages from the responsible party or parties. Members of your family may also be able to recover damages based on how much your personal injury has had an effect upon your relationship with them.
The type of damage claims you make depends on the personal injury or injuries which you have suffered and the consequences of them. You may suffer harmful effects from the personal injury both during and after its occurrence.
In a personal injury lawsuit, there are many types of damages or compensation which you may be entitled to receive. Legal economic recovery from those at fault includes the following types of damage claims that may be available to you.
Disfigurement
If you have suffered scars or disfiguring injuries or even endured the terrible hardship of being deformed from an accident you can receive what are called disfigurement damages. This type of award also covers any mental suffering which you have endured because of your disfigurement. Mental anguish or other damages may sometimes include these damages in your award.
Future Medical Expenses
Upon proving that you will need to make financial arrangements for continuing future medical expenses as a result of your injury, you may receive damages. As part of your proof you will need the expert medical opinion of the physician who is caring for you as to what the estimated future medical expenses will entail.
General
General damages include those damages which would normally result from the fault of the responsible party or parties. General damages may consist of loss of enjoyment of life and/or mental and physical pain. There is not a specific way to determine or value these damages; they just ordinarily follow from a personal injury.
Household Services
If you need to hire someone to provide household services to you because you are recovering, you may be entitled to damages which pay for such services as long as you wouldn’t have had this expenditure if you weren’t injured. Sometimes these damages are included with medical expenses.
Loss of Consortium
If your spouse is deprived of the benefits of married life by losing things such as affection, comfort, companionship, help and assistance, sexual relations, or solace, he or she may be entitled to receive damages. Your spouse will typically argue this case, but whether he or she will be awarded damages depends on whether you receive any compensation for your personal injury claim. The way that the amount of damages for loss of consortium is determined is by taking into account the amount of care and companionship each of you gave to each other before your accident, the extent of your loss of benefits from the marriage, each of your life expectancies, and how stable your marriage was before the injury,
Loss of Consortium of a Child
If you are a parent, you may receive an award when your child is injured and his or her injuries get in the way of the normal relationship which existed between you.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
If you are unable to enjoy the day-to-day pleasures normally associated with living life, you may be entitled to damages. These damages are typically a part of general damages; i.e. there is no exact way to put monetary values on them. In some states, these damages are treated as a type of pain and suffering. Other states treat them as a specific type of personal injury damage.
Loss of Society and Companionship
If your personal injury case is a wrongful death lawsuit, you may receive compensation for the loss of the caring benefits coming from the closeness, comfort, companionship, and love from which you and your immediate family members would have benefited if your loved one who died would have lived. In determining these damages, juries look at your common activities and interests, proof that your deceased loved one had a pleasant relationship with you, and if you ever experienced a separation in your marriage for an extensive amount of time. Related damages include loss of consortium and loss of consortium of a child.
Lost Earning Capacity
Damages for loss of earning capacity may be awarded if you can show that your ability to earn a living in the future has been diminished or harmed due to your personal injury. Issues that can establish whether you will receive compensation for this consist of your age, career, level of experience, health condition, life expectancy, skills, talents, and/or training. The damage award is mostly comprised of how much you might have earned in the future if it weren’t for your injury, although your prior income levels may also be considered.
Lost Wages
These damages are different from lost earning capacity in that they consist of what you would have earned between when you were personally injured and when you received a judgment or settlement of damages. Even if you are unemployed you still may receive compensation if you can show what you could have been earning during the period between your injury and your damage award.
Medical Expenses
If you incurred medical expenses to treat your personal injury like bills from ambulance services, doctors, emergency room treatments, hospital stays, and nursing care, you may be entitled to receive compensation for these expenses. If you have other injuries or illnesses resulting from your original accident these may also be included. The total extent of medical expenses is sometimes used as an educated guess to determine if the entire award of compensation is reasonable. However, if you pay for a medical exam to determine if you wish to pursue your case it is not normally part of your recovered expenses or damages.
Medical Surveillance
In order to detect any injury or illness early which may then have a lesser effect on you or even be prevented, you may receive damages for the cost of medically surveilling you or monitoring your medical condition after you were exposed to a hazardous substance.
Mental Anguish
This type of damage compensates you for your mental anguish or emotional suffering which you experienced as a result of your accident or personal injury. These distresses may include things like alarm, apprehension, anxiety, concern, degradation, disgrace, embarrassment, fright, grief, humiliation, jumpiness, loss of dignity, loss of self-esteem, loss of sleep, mortification, nervousness, panic, shame, shock, sorrow, terror, uneasiness, and worry.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages include all the future pain you are expected to suffer along with past pain you have already suffered due to your personal injury. When juries decide award amounts for pain and suffering they consider factors such as the type of injury you suffered, how severe it is, how long you are likely to suffer pain as a result of your injury, and how certain it is that you will undergo future pain. Some states require that you were conscious when receiving your injury, while others allow your jury to assume that if you experienced an injury you also experienced some pain and suffering. Some states limit the amount of money you can recover for pain and suffering.
Permanent Disability
In order to attest that you have suffered a permanent disability, you usually need expert medical testimony. Sometimes permanent disability awards by the court are for disabilities you subjectively perceive in addition to permanentphysical disabilities.
Present Cash Value
These damages include the present cash value that your projected future earnings would be worth currently if they were to be invested prudently and wisely in the future.
Special Damages
These are general damages for a personal injury that reimburse you for all types of financial losses including medical expenses. In order to receive these damages, you need to show comprehensive evidence that you had these losses and how much they are worth monetarily.
These are all of the types of damage claims you may make in a personal injury case. If you have suffered a personal injury please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer who will explain all your alternatives and will make certain that you are awarded all of the personal injury damages to which you are entitled depending on the laws in your state.
