If you’ve been injured, you may be entitled to money in a personal injury claim. A personal injury claim is a legal action where an injured person looks to reclaim costs associated with emotional, physical or mental injuries from the person who caused those injuries. Property damages are also often including in a personal injury claim involving compensatory damages.
Not everyone may be entitled to compensatory damages and they are not just randomly given to the injured person. (An injured person or party is also called a plaintiff. The individual or party responsible for causing the injury is referred to as the defendant.)
The injury lawyer in Medicine Hat knows that purpose of compensatory damages in a personal injury claim is to help restore the injured person to the financial and physical position they were in before the incident that caused the harm or loss happened.
Category of Compensatory damages
Compensatory damages are usually divided into two categories: special damages and general damages.
General damages are the more difficult of the losses to award or determine the amount of the ward. These types of damages are the ones that aren’t quantifiable and sometimes more difficult to prove. These include emotional distress and loss of companionship.
Special damages are the quantifiable kind. This means these are the types that can be fairly easily calculated like medical expenses, loss of earnings, and property damage. The purpose of special damages when referring to compensatory damages in a personal injury claim is to restore the injured party to the position they were in before the incident that caused the damage occurred.
Proof is required in order to file a lawsuit for any type of compensatory damages. It is up to the injured party and their legal team to prove that a loss has occurred and that it was caused by the defendant. It is their responsibility to show that it was the conduct of the defendant that caused the injury or loss. Most cases involves some sort of negligence on the part of the defendant such as careless driving causing bodily injury.
Examples of proof include video or photographic images of the incident or accident, actual physical evidence like dents, statements from witnesses, police reports or medical reports.
Calculation of Compensatory Damages in a Personal Injury Claim
There are a wide variety of factors courts take into consideration when determining the amount of compensation in a personal injury claim. There is no set formula. Some things the courts will take into consideration when determining the amount of money a plaintiff is entitled include:
• Rehabilitation and medical treatment costs
• Age and background of the plaintiff
• Actual income losses
• The level of property damage that was caused by the incident
• The extent and type of injury
• The impact the injury or accident has on the current and future earning ability of the plaintiff.