A Guide to the various types of personal injury damages

Has your loved one suffered from a car crash or a road accident? Have you lost your family member due to a slip and fall case? Has your dear one suffered due to serious medical malpractice? If the answers to all the above questions are ‘Yes,' then you are in need to appoint a personal injury lawyer to legally represent you in the court, fight for the compensation you deserve and guide you through the legal and related formalities of the process. Consult the law firm Zervos & Calta to deal with your personal injury cases.

The jury asses the exact amount of compensation for such damages and it varies from case-to-case. However, if the final amount is too high or too low, then necessary decrements or increments can be made by the jury itself. Let's have a look at the types of personal injury damages.

• Compensatory damages: A personal injury can be physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially draining. Compensation to such monetary and non-monetary damages can restore the victim and victim's family members to a certain extent. Compensation for monetary damages are also known as ‘special damages,' and they include the following:

• Medical expenses: This amount takes into consideration the costs of past medical care as well as all the future costs estimating the victim’s life expectancy.

• Lost past and future wages: The victim has to suffer from loss of wages due to injuries as well as loss of earning capacity. One can get compensated for both the cases.

• Living with disability: Certain injuries can cause permanent damage to the victim which can often result in a physical or mental disability. This, in turn, requires additional expenses on a daily basis. In such cases, compensation for living with the disability can help to a certain extent. Say bearing the cost of renovating the house for a physically disabled victim or bearing the periodical expenses of nursing or medical assistance.

• Cost of property damage: Property might get damaged say in case of a car accident or any other kind of accident. Compensation for such losses usually depends on the fair market value of the damaged property at the time of the accident.

• Non-monetary damages are generally difficult to measure and calculate and vary from one victim to another. Such damages include pain and suffering and loss of emotional aspects. The pain would refer to physical pain whereas suffering would refer to the increased frequency of anger, fear, anxiety or disinterest in life. Spouses of the victims suffering from personal injury get compensated for damages arising out of certain non-measurable elements such as loss of love, care, and affection, loss of interest in marital life or social life and loss of sense of companionship.

• Punitive damages: compensation for such damages are not meant to compensate the victim, but to punish the defendant for causing such injuries. It alerts others from indulging in similar behavior. Punitive damages compensation varies from case to case and may not get awarded in every situation.

It is essential for one and all to remain alert from committing such an act and from being the victim of such an action.