How Is Personal Injury Calculated?
Damages are a crucial aspect of settlement negotiations in personal injury cases. Damages may encompass both economic losses and non-economic injuries.
Economic damages refer to tangible costs such as medical bills, lost wages and property damage that cannot be replaced. They tend to be easier to calculate than non-economic damages.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages are compensation for physical as well as emotional pain and suffering that can arise after personal injury accidents. These damages cover injuries such as back and neck discomfort, concussions or headaches, broken bones, internal organ damage, nerve damage, PTSD, loss of function and more.
A typical pain and suffering settlement can range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to several million, depending on the severity of the injury and which type of claim you pursue.
Your potential settlement amount in a pain and suffering case depends on several factors, including age, the severity of the injury, medical history, and state laws. Furthermore, consider how this accident has impacted daily life – such as socializing or completing household chores – when calculating compensation.
Personal injury lawyers typically calculate pain and suffering through a multiplier method. Under this approach, your attorney adds up all economic damages (costs for current and future wages lost, medical bills, earning capacity loss, property damage) then multiplies them by either 1.5 or 5, depending on how severe the injury was.
Attorneys commonly utilize a per diem method to calculate pain and suffering. This approach is employed when an injured claimant has endured long-lasting, incapacitating pain from their injuries.
Calculating an accurate dollar amount that accounts for pain and suffering can be tricky. That’s because proving that your discomfort was caused by a specific event and the value of each injury differs across individuals.
It can be challenging to determine how long your injuries have lasted. If they leave you with permanent, disabling pain that does not improve with treatment, multipliers and per diem methods won’t accurately reflect the value of your suffering.
A qualified pain and suffering lawyer can assist you in determining a fair settlement for your individual circumstances, and how to pursue it. They also assist in collecting evidence supporting your claim for compensation such as medical reports from doctors or other professionals, copies of any necessary bills, and testimonies from witnesses.
Economic Damages
The legal system provides personal injury victims with the means to pursue compensation for their losses following an accident. Damages may take the form of economic, non-economic or punitive damages.
Economic damages are the first type of financial damages an injury victim can seek after an accident. These cover medical treatment costs, lost wages, property damage and other expenses caused by the incident.
Many people know they can receive reimbursement for medical bills and lost wages, but there are other types of economic losses you might not be aware of.
For instance, if you suffered serious injuries in an accident, you might require long-term care or disability that limits your capacity to work. These future expenses represent economic loss and must be reimbursed accordingly.
You may be eligible to receive a portion of the value of your property, such as a car or home. An appraiser can help determine how much it’s worth and calculate how much money is owed you based on that estimate.
When calculating economic damages, a judge will take into account your past and future medical expenses, lost wages, household services, vocational rehabilitation and other out-of-pocket losses. They also consider the potential cost of your injuries in terms of their effect on earning capacity.
Personal injury lawyers typically consult an economic damages expert to calculate these figures. These professionals are usually accountants experienced in valuing property and financial claims.
They will take into account inflation rate, other economic variables, as well as any special or unusual circumstances that may have diminished the value of your items. They then add these figures together to arrive at an accurate assessment of damages.
Non-economic damages refer to any emotional trauma an injury victim endured as a result of their accident. Although these amounts cannot be quantified, testimonies from plaintiffs and evidence of emotional distress or other negative feelings caused by the injuries can serve as compensation for these losses.
General Damages
General damages refer to financial awards made to an injured party for losses that cannot be quantified. These can include pain and suffering, emotional distress, future earnings potential, as well as a diminished quality of life.
Calculating general damages is not always straightforward, but courts often draw inspiration from past decisions to help guide their calculations. This is because courts want all victims of the same type of negligent action to receive comparable levels of compensation.
Special damages, on the other hand, are easier to calculate as they have a specific dollar amount associated with them. These could include medical expenses, out-of-pocket expenses or lost wages.
When filing a personal injury claim, it’s essential to keep all receipts and bills. Doing this gives you an accurate calculation of how much special damages have been rendered and allows your lawyer to assign a proper monetary value for these losses.
Estimating the value of your special damages requires multiplying the cost of medical bills by either 1.5 to five, depending on how severe your injuries and what kind of treatment you received. In severe cases, a multiplier as high as ten may be used.
When calculating your special damages, it’s helpful to account for any lost income due to the accident. This could range from a temporary decrease in earnings to an irreversible reduction. Furthermore, any out-of-pocket expenses caused by your injury such as taxi fare or prescriptions will also be reimbursed.
For the most part, this is a straightforward process that you can handle on your own without the help of an attorney. However, in certain instances having an expert – such as a forensic accountant – help calculate how much compensation for general damages that should be awarded might be beneficial.
When selecting the appropriate compensation for you, your lawyer will take into account all medical expenses, any out-of-pocket costs resulting from your injury and lost wages. Furthermore, they can assess any other losses such as stress or depression which may be harder to quantify and require more detailed calculations.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are additional compensation that a court can grant victims who have suffered due to someone else’s negligence. They’re sometimes referred to as “exemplary damages” or “exemplary punishment,” and these awards serve several purposes, such as specific and general deterrence.
Punitive damages can only be awarded when a plaintiff can prove that the defendant’s conduct was egregious, meaning they acted recklessly or with malicious intent to harm another individual. The exact criteria for proving recklessness or malicious intent vary by state.
When calculating punitive damages, juries must take into account several factors. These include the defendant’s conduct, his financial state and any connection between that action and any actual losses suffered by the victim.
Though some states have caps on how much can be awarded in punitive damages, California does not. This allows victims to receive much larger sums than they would otherwise be able to receive through settlements.
In certain instances, courts will grant more compensation to the responsible party when their actions were particularly egregious. This can occur in instances when they were found to have been grossly negligent or reckless.
Punitive damages awarded vary by state, but usually do not exceed four times the total compensatory damages awarded in a case. This is because punitive damages are meant to deter wrongdoers from repeating similar behaviors and serve as a public example for others to emulate.
A victim’s attorney can assess whether their claim for punitive damages is strong enough. They also assist them in gathering all evidence and documents needed to support a claim.
It’s essential to remember that personal injury claims can be complex, necessitating an experienced attorney’s help in order to successfully navigate the legal process. If you’re thinking about filing a punitive damage claim, consult with an experienced lawyer as soon as possible so they can determine if your case has merit and how best to proceed.
