A fall victim that gets only a slight bruise on the palm of his or her hand does not have a valuable personal injury case. On the other hand, someone that suffers a broken bone after slipping on a wet floor does have a valuable case. The size of the victim’s damages determines the value of a given personal injury claim.
The compensatory damages
The value of such damages reflects the size of the economic, physical and mental costs that the victim of a personal injury accident needs to pay. A list of compensatory damages would include the costs created by multiple problems and would include the following:
Damaged property: If some item that cannot be replaced has been damaged, that increases the value of this specific problem.
Medical bills sent to injured victim: If a majority of such bills have come from a hospital, clinic or physician, rather than from a health care provider, then that fact will help to increase the value of the victim’s case.
Pain and suffering: This covers the expenses created by the disruption of the victim’s life.
Income lost: This includes both income lost during a recovery from the injury and what would be lost in the future, if the victim could not return to work.
Emotional distress: Anxiety, stress, apprehension, fear and other feelings that developed following the injury-causing event.
Loss of enjoyment: Inability to pursue a loved hobby; inability to take part in a favorite sport; inability to join family members for a particular activity.
Loss of consortium: Refers to the extent to which a given injury has affected the victim’s ability to maintain a relationship with a spouse or another loved one. A handicapped parent might find it hard to maintain a relationship with young son or daughter.
Punitive damages
If a defendant has been especially careless, he or she might get hit with punitive damages. The cost of such damages can come close to emptying a defendant’s pocket or pocketbook. Still, the judge will consider other factors as well, when determining the amount of money that the defendant must pay to the injured victim. However the role of the personal injury lawyer in Sherwood Park.
If the evidence indicated that the plaintiff had helped to create the accident-causing situation, then the judge would probably reduce the size of the punitive damages. On the other hand, if the accident had forced the plaintiff to cover multiple costs, then the judge would make note of that fact as well.
That would show that the accident had placed a financial hardship on the plaintiff. In light of the evidence that supported the creation of such a hardship, the judge might decide to increase the size of the punitive damages.