What Are Compensatory Damages in a Personal Injury Claim?
If you have a personal injury claim that escalates into a lawsuit, you will soon hear the term ‘compensatory damages’ mentioned quite frequently. These damages are essentially the compensation to be awarded by the at-fault party for the losses you’ve suffered from the accident they caused.
The entire purpose of compensatory damages is to attempt to make a victim’s life as whole again as is possible, given the circumstances. You may never be the same after your injuries, but compensatory damages will provide you with the money you need to medically care for your injuries, support your family amid loss of income, and compensate you in other ways.
Understanding What Is Included in Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages can be further broken down into two distinct categories known as economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are an integral part of compensatory damages, as these are all the accident-related expenses you incurred as a result of the other party’s negligent behavior. After a car accident, you may have needed to go to the emergency room via ambulance, stay in the hospital for several days or more, or have surgery to save your life.
You may also need to see a physical therapist, use an assistive medical device, and take prescription medications during your course of healing. All of your medical expenses caused by this accident will be part of your economic damages.
Economic damages are characterized by having an exact dollar amount to pinpoint the financial loss caused. In this regard, you can also seek lost wages for the time you missed at work, loss of future income if your injuries prevent you from working again, property damage, and your other out-of-pocket costs that can be linked to the accident.
Non-Economic Damages
By contrast, non-economic damages have no exact dollar amount tethered to them, but they are part of compensatory damages all the same. An easy way to understand them is that they do not involve your out-of-pocket expenses, but rather, they relate to your subjective losses.
It is common for victims in personal injury accidents to suffer mental anguish, emotional distress, disfigurement, permanent disability, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Since non-economic damages are intangible, it helps to rely on a trusted personal injury attorney in Los Angeles who can help illustrate to the judge or jury the depth of these losses when seeking compensation.
Are Punitive Damages Part of Compensatory Damages?
You may have also heard mention of punitive damages and wonder if it is another part of compensatory damages. Punitive damages are separate and are not commonly awarded to injured victims in California.
These damages are meant as a punishment for the at-fault party, awarded in addition to compensatory damages. They are more rarely awarded because they require the defendant to behave in either a grossly negligent or malicious way. For example, a drunk driver who crashes into school children at a crosswalk would most likely be made to pay punitive damages.
Understanding Damage Caps in California
In most personal injury cases in Los Angeles, there are no caps placed on compensatory damages. The judge or a jury is left to decide the amount they believe is reasonable and fair for compensation awards.
The only type of case that has a cap on damages is those involving medical malpractice, limiting the pain and suffering and other non-economic damages to $250,000, regardless of the severity of the injury.
Who Pays Compensatory Damages?
In most cases, the insurance company for the at-fault party will be responsible for paying compensatory damages up to the limits of the policy. What about the rest of your damages? If the person who caused your car accident has the minimum required coverage in their policy, then suing them for the rest of your compensatory damages is how you will get the rest of your financial losses reimbursed.
One of the biggest mistakes that injured victims make is that they file their injury claim with the insurance company without legal representation. You might think there’s no harm in this action, and the insurance adjuster seems nice on the phone.
This is merely one of their tactics, and they train all adjusters to have a sympathetic demeanor in the hopes that you’ll dish out more details. They will then use this information against you to put partial blame on you for the accident to lower your claim. Don’t be fooled by the act, and make sure that you speak with an attorney who can calculate the full extent of your compensatory damages and get you what your case is worth.
