Car accidents can result in devastating property damage and bodily injuries.
When you suffer an injury or lose a loved one in a car accident caused by someone else, personal injury law allows you to seek compensation for your losses in the form of damages.
Economic damages
The economic damages you can recover are the losses with quantified financial value. They include:
- Medical costs, such as ambulance expenses, medical devices, treatments from hospitals and clinics, medications, and transportation to visits
- Lost wages, including past and future missed work and decreased earning capacity caused by disability
- Loss of benefits or business opportunities
- Costs to repair or replace your damaged vehicle
- Cost of household care or childcare needed as you heal
If you lost a loved one, you may file a wrongful death suit and seek repayment of funeral expenses, burial costs, and lost benefits or income provided by the deceased person.
Non-economic damages
Non-economic damages include those losses that are not easily quantifiable. They include:
- The pain and suffering associated with physical injuries
- Emotional distress caused by losing a loved one
- Mental anguish associated with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder
- The loss of your ability to enjoy life as you did before
- The negative change associated with disfigurement or disability
- The loss of companionship or consortium
Proving these losses may require testimonies from your friends and family.
The purpose of compensatory damages is to replace what you lost as a result of the accident. Sometimes you cannot make whole what you lost, but the financial award can help soften the blow.