What are the Different Types of Damages Available After a Car Accident?

Many people know that they may be able to receive compensation if they have been injured in a car accident, and this compensation is referred to as “damages.” There are different types of damages that are designed for specific purposes. Not every type of damages will be available in every case.

If you want to know the damages that you could recover in your particular case, you can consult a personal injury attorney who will review all the facts and the impacts of the accident to provide an estimate of the types of damages you could potentially receive and the amounts of each type. It is helpful to understand the various types and situations where they may be awarded in court or offered in a settlement.

Compensatory Damages

The civil legal system is designed to provide justice with a goal of restoring what someone has lost because of the wrongful actions of others. Even when an individual or company doesn’t intend to cause harm, if they behave irresponsibly and that causes a motor vehicle accident, then the person responsible is liable for the harm they have caused to others. Being liable means they need to do something to restore the situation as close as possible to the way it was before the wrongdoing occurred.

If the wrongdoing involved taking someone else’s money and spending it, then the wrongdoer would restore the situation by paying back the money. If they hit a parked car, then the wrongdoer would restore the situation by paying for the repair bills or buying a replacement vehicle if necessary. But there’s no truly accurate way to restore the situation when someone causes another person to get hurt. The person responsible can’t provide healing or erase suffering. All they can do is provide money to pay for medical treatment and more money to try to compensate the victim for their suffering. These are compensatory damages. The goal is to compensate the victim in some way for what they have lost.

Compensatory Damages Can Be Economic or Noneconomic

A car accident can cause numerous consequences in your life. When someone else’s irresponsible behavior causes a car accident, you deserve to have that person provide compensation for each consequence. Some of the consequences involve losses with an economic value that you can calculate directly. For instance, you can add up the bills for your time in the hospital, doctor visits, and other medical services to determine the value of your past medical expenses.

Your compensatory damage award should provide for future needs stemming from the accident as well. So, in consultation with medical professionals, your legal team may calculate the value of the cost of future medical care you will need, including physical therapy, medical equipment, and assistance you may need. In addition to medical costs, other losses with a monetary value include the loss in wages you suffered because of your inability to work and reductions in your ability to earn in the future because of the need to continue healing or due to lingering disabilities. You may also have damage to a vehicle and many other losses with a monetary value. These are known as economic losses.

Noneconomic Damages for Intangible Losses

The effects of the accident include many factors that don’t have a direct economic equivalent. You experience losses that are intangible but no less real. In fact, the intangible losses often have a greater impact on your life than the economic losses. These include:

• Pain
• Suffering
• Emotional anguish
• Anxiety
• Loss of the ability to enjoy your favorite activities
• Disfigurement
• Physical or mental impairment
• Overall reduction in the quality of life

People experiencing constant long-term pain might give everything they own for one day of relief from their pain and suffering. So, the amounts awarded for intangible, noneconomic damages are often much higher than the amounts awarded for economic damages. While there is no direct way to calculate the value of your intangible losses, your attorney can develop an estimate based on legal precedent from earlier cases compared with the severity of your individual losses.

Punitive Damages Extend Beyond Compensation

When your attorney has considered all the impacts of your injuries from the past, present, and future, a value can be assigned to each factor, and that would be what you would request for compensatory damages. But there is an additional type of damages you can ask for that go beyond compensation. Depending on the circumstances, your lawyer may be able to ask for punitive damages to be awarded in addition to economic and noneconomic compensatory damages.

Instead of being designed to compensate you for what you’ve experienced, punitive damages are intended to punish the person responsible for doing something very wrong. Punitive damages are awarded in situations where an individual or company has done something so egregious that the extra damages are assessed as a warning to others. For instance, if a trucking company had received citations for having dangerous brakes on several trucks and they sent the trucks back on the road and didn’t attempt any repairs for months before one of the dangerous trucks caused an accident, that could potentially be a situation where an attorney might ask the court for punitive damages. Or, when a driver with multiple DWI convictions causes an accident while under the influence, that is another situation where courts will frequently award punitive damages.

Work with an Attorney Who is Prepared to Fight for Maximum Damages

A car accident can change your life—and the life of your family—forever. When that accident was the fault of someone who behaved irresponsibly, then you deserve to receive compensation for every loss you’ve experienced, whether economic or noneconomic. You may also be able to receive punitive damages depending on the situation. To receive all the damages that apply in your case, you need to work with an attorney who is prepared to make effective arguments and fight every step of the way to get what you deserve. At Michael M. Day Law Firm, LLC, we focus carefully on the needs of each client so that we can give you our maximum effort. We stand up to insurance companies and work effectively to get full and fair damages for your losses. If you or a loved one suffered injuries in a car accident, contact us today for a free case evaluation and consultation to learn what may be possible in your case.