After a car accident, getting fair compensation for your injuries and losses can be difficult. To help clients achieve an appropriate settlement, car accident attorneys often assess both economic and non-economic damages. Here’s how these two types of damages are calculated, ensuring that victims receive a fair outcome.
Understanding Economic Damages
Economic damages, also known as “special damages,” are the tangible, quantifiable losses you face after an accident. Since these losses have a clear monetary value, they’re easier to calculate and prove. Attorneys gather documentation like medical bills, receipts, and repair estimates to calculate the full extent of economic damages.
Some common examples of economic car accident damages include:
- Medical Costs: This encompasses costs related to your immediate treatment, like hospital bills and ambulance fees, as well as any anticipated future medical expenses if ongoing care is required.
- Property Damage: When your vehicle or other property is damaged in an accident, you can seek reimbursement for repair or replacement costs.
- Lost Income: If your injuries prevent you from working temporarily or even permanently, you may be eligible for lost wages. This not only includes your salary but also covers bonuses, commissions, and benefits you would have earned.
- Out-of-Pocket Expenses: These might include travel costs to and from medical appointments or home modifications needed to accommodate a disability caused by the accident.
Because these costs are straightforward to document, economic damages generally make up the foundation of a personal injury claim.
Unpacking Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages, often called “general damages,” are harder to measure in car accident settlements since they relate to intangible losses. These damages don’t come with bills or receipts, yet they reflect real impacts on your quality of life after an accident.
Examples of non-economic car accident damages include:
- Pain and Suffering: This encompasses the physical pain and emotional anguish you experience due to the accident. Pain and suffering can extend beyond immediate discomfort to include ongoing distress as you recover.
- Psychological and Emotional Distress: Accidents can lead to psychological effects, including anxiety, depression, or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Compensation here aims to recognize these invisible yet impactful losses.
- Diminished Quality of Life: When injuries limit your ability to enjoy activities or hobbies you once loved, you may be compensated for this loss.
- Loss of Consortium: This refers to the effect of your injuries on personal relationships, particularly the loss of companionship or intimacy with your spouse.
- Permanent Impairment: If your accident leaves you with visible scars or permanent disfigurement, you may be eligible for compensation for the emotional toll these changes impose.
Calculating Total Damages
To calculate non-economic damages, attorneys often use a “multiplier principle,” which involves multiplying your total economic damages by a number (often between 1.5 and 5), depending on the severity of your injuries. This method helps quantify these subjective losses to add them to the claim.
Car Accident Settlements in Chico: Get the Compensation You Deserve
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, don’t leave your recovery and losses to chance. At Ron Marquez Law Corp, we’re here to ensure you receive the full compensation you deserve. Our car accident attorneys specialize in accident claim settlements and personal injury and damage settlements. Contact us today for a free consultation—let’s work together to make sure you’re fairly compensated.
