Types of Damages You Can Recover in a Personal Injury Case

If you have been injured because of someone else’s negligence, you can seek compensation from the responsible party or those who contributed to your losses. Such losses are called damages in a personal injury claim. Damages can be compensatory or punitive. Compensatory damages will compensate you for a financial or persona loss while punitive damages will punish the defendant and prevent them from doing the same thing. Compensatory damages are further divided into the following:

Economic Damages

Economic damages refer to losses that can have a monetary value placed on them. Below are considered economic damages:

Medical treatment. Medical treatment after a personal injury often costs thousands of dollars. But, reliable Colorado Springs Personal Injury Lawyers can usually work on injury cases with medical bills well into the six-figure range. When injured, your debt can quickly become overwhelming. Your medical expenses can include hospital bills, ambulance fees, physical therapy, medical appointments, surgical costs, and more. Your lawyer must calculate future medical expenses, especially if you will need more medical treatment after your claim is settled.
Lost income. Your injury may force you to take time off work to get treatment and recuperate at home. Your injury claim can include the income you lost because of time off. Your attorney will also consider if your injury is serious enough to make it impossible for you to go back to work.
Property damage. Whether your property is damaged or destroyed, your claim should include this. It can include the cost of repairing or replacing your vehicle.

Non-Economic Damages

These damages will compensate you for non-monetary damages because of your injury. These include the following:

Pain and suffering. These damages include physical pain due to an injury, a physical impairment that makes it hard to move around, disfigurement like a burn or laceration, physical discomfort due to medical treatment, loss of quality of life, mental anguish over the trauma or loss, and others.
Emotional distress. Often, this kind of compensation is reserved for cases that involve birth injury, wrongful death, and other serious incidents.
Loss of consortium or companionship. This refers to the deprivation of intimacy and companionship because of an injury or death. This kind of compensation is quite specific to particular kinds of claims and is usually awarded in cases that involve death.

Punitive Damages

These damages are awarded only when the defendant’s wrongful death behavior was fraudulent, willful, intentional, and wanton. They will punish the at-fault party and deter them and others from doing the same thing in the future.