Answers to Your Questions About General and Special Injury Damages

When you sue for damages after a personal injury, you are generally doing so because you need compensation in order to fully recover and get your life back on track. The financial keys to achieving this are generally known as compensatory damages.

What do you need to know about the two main types of compensatory damages? And how can this knowledge help you get what you deserve from the at-fault party? Here are the answers to a few key questions.

What Are Personal Injury Damages?

In legal terms, "damages" refers to the financial loss a person suffered as a result of the incident - and therefore the compensation they need. Damages may come in a variety of forms, but two of the most common are also the most broad-reaching: general and special damages. These types of damages attempt to translate both personal suffering and future financial effects into a dollar amount that can be awarded today.

How Do General and Special Damages Differ?

"General damages" is a wide category that tries to put a dollar figure to many non-economic issues. It focuses on the physical and emotional damage you or your loved ones face, including pain, suffering, mental health challenges, loss of companionship, and permanent changes in one's life. These damages are not one-to-one compensation, and they usually don't come with receipts.

Special damages focus more on the economic fallout of your injury. This is where your medical, therapy, and rehabilitation costs would be calculated. It may include lost wages or business earnings as well as estimations of future earnings you will have lost due to your injuries. Sometimes, more unusual costs could be included, such as fees from a sudden change in plans due to the incident.

How Are General and Special Damages Combined?

Both general and special damages have their purposes, and a person often seeks a mix of both. But the right combination is unique to your situation, so there is no one-size-fits-all percentage or dollar amount of each.

For example, your injury may have resulted in a hospital stay followed by therapy to get you back on your feet. You would have lost wages when you couldn't work. But if you have made or will make a full recovery, the focus of damages may be to compensate you for prior pain and suffering, medical and care costs, and wages you already lost out on. General damages for future costs may be minimal.

On the other hand, if you face a long recovery or have permanent injuries, what happened in the past is only one half - or less - of the overall puzzle. In this case, your attorney may spend significant time calculating future lost income potential, future medical care, ongoing therapy, or how your quality of life may have been changed.

How Are Damages Calculated?

Although they have different focuses, both general and special damages are calculated using a mix of hard facts and suppositions. Things like medical care, prosthetic devices, and burial costs of a loved one can be determined through bills and price estimates. Past wages are usually easy to identify using your earning history.

Other compensation is harder to pin down. An expert may need to forecast lost future earnings by tracing your income trajectory before and after the accident. And putting a number to the loss of marital relations or the ability to hold one's children is even harder. There are no set rules, so you would determine this number in conjunction with an experienced personal injury specialist.

Clearly, personal injury damages are a complicated subject. To get the best outcome, you need a qualified attorney with experience in calculating both general and special damages. The Law Offices of Janice Maloneycan help. Call today to discuss your case during a free consultation.