The Economic Damages That Most Often Enter into Personal Injury Lawsuits

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If you elect to sue a person or business, you probably didn’t make that decision lightly. You likely realize that such a personal injury lawsuit will take up a lot of your energy and time. You may feel you have no other option, though.  

Collecting economic damages requires tenacity and legal knowledge, and that’s why you’ll need a skilled personal injury lawyer if you’re going to file one of these lawsuits. You will want to make sure that the attorney you hired has plenty of experience not just in this area of the law, but also with the specific kind of lawsuit which you’ve filed.

You might go after the defendant with the idea of collecting particular kinds of economic damages. We will talk about some of the most common ones now.

What Do Economic Damages Mean in Personal Injury Law?

First, let’s define economic damages to be sure you know what we mean when we use this term. Economic damages in personal injury law refer to money you’re trying to collect to repay what you paid out of pocket following the accident or incident that hurt you or made you sick.

In other words, economic damages usually mean the specific dollar amount you can prove you spent or that you lost because of action or inaction by the defendant. To collect those damages, you and your lawyer will likely need to prove a direct link between the person or company you’re suing and the damages you sustained for which you had to pay. 

However, you should also know that if you file a personal injury lawsuit, you may attempt to collect non-economic damages at the same time.  

What About Non-Economic Damages?

Let’s briefly define non-economic damages. These include damages that you feel the defendant caused, whether directly or indirectly, that don’t fall into the economic category. In other words, if you feel the defendant harmed you, but you can’t put a specific dollar amount on what you spent to remedy that harm, that falls into the non-economic damages category. 

For instance, if you feel you endured pain and suffering because of something the defendant did or didn’t do, then you could consider those non-economic damages. It’s often more difficult putting a specific dollar amount on non-economic damages, though. That’s because you might have to come up with an arbitrary amount that you think the defendant should pay to balance the scales of justice on top of any economic damages for which you feel they should pay you back.

You might have to consult with your lawyer to try to figure out how much you might ask for in non-economic damages. They will usually look at precedent that similar lawsuits set to try to come up with a dollar amount for which you should ask.

Now, let’s get back to the common economic damages you might try to get from the defendant in a personal injury lawsuit.

Money to Compensate Your Lost Wages

If you have to miss some work because you allege that a person or business entity harmed you, then you will want to collect money from them that will cover the lost wages you didn’t receive. Sometimes, you can get worker’s compensation from your job if you have to miss work. However, if you sustained an injury or got sick away from your workplace, then you probably can’t.

That’s why it becomes even more vital that you win your lawsuit. You can probably calculate how much you feel you should get from the defendant relatively easily. You can simply add up the money you would normally get from your paychecks during the time when you can’t work. 

Damages to Repair Your Car

If you’re suing another driver who hit your vehicle, then you might try to get economic damages that will cover the vehicle’s repairs. If you’re not suing another driver who hit you, though, then you naturally won’t pursue these damages.

If another driver hit your vehicle in at at-fault state, but they won’t admit they caused the accident, that’s one common reason why you’d want to sue them. You might also have a situation where their insurance won’t admit that the other driver caused the accident.

You can look at how much you paid to fix your car and ask for that amount in economic damages. You can either ask for that amount from the other driver or their insurance company, depending on which one you’re suing.

Damages to Cover Your Medical Bills

It is also highly likely that if an individual or company harmed you or made you ill, you will want to get money from them to cover what you paid in doctor or hospital bills. Maybe you went to a clinic to get treatment. Perhaps you went to the emergency room or your primary doctor’s office.

No matter which one you visited, though, you may have a large stack of medical bills coming from that. Even if you have insurance, your treatment might come with some hefty copays. You would like the person or company who you deem responsible to pay you back for that.

If you had to have surgery after the accident or incident that injured you or made you sick, then you can just imagine how much you might have to pay in copays. You might also have medical bills from physical therapy or from medication that you had to take afterward.

Damages to Cover Therapy  

Maybe you also need to recover money from therapy if you felt that would help you after the accident or incident that hurt you or made you ill. Perhaps the situation put you in a dark place mentally. You needed to talk to a qualified mental health professional in order to feel better.

You will probably have copays from that as well. You must try to get those back as part of the economic damages you feel that the defendant owes you.