Injury Compensation: Types, Amounts & How To Claim

When you make a personal injury claim, the purpose of the claim is to be “made whole” for any losses you experienced because someone else hurt you. In some cases, you are also paid additional compensation beyond this.

Here are the different kinds of personal injury compensation that you may be entitled to receive if you make a claim against a person or individual who caused you harm.

Economic Damages

When you are harmed by someone else, you experience actual financial losses. The compensation you receive to repay you for this loss comes in the form of economic damages. The amount of economic damages you can receive is usually relatively simple to calculate since it’s easy to add up how much actual money you lost.

Economic damages can include compensation for:

• Medical bills you incurred as a direct result of the injury that you experienced
• Future medical costs if the injuries are permanent or if you will still require care after your case is resolved
• Lost wages for missed work time and sick days or vacation days you had to take due to the injury
• Future lost earnings if you cannot work or if your ability to work was affected as a direct result of the injury you sustained
• Loss of or damage to your property as a result of the injury
• Other out-of-pocket financial loss you experienced due to costs associated with the defendant’s negligent or wrongful actions

You can estimate these losses by looking at your medical bills and paychecks, as well as by working with experts who can help you to estimate future care needs and lost earnings.

Non-Economic Damages

You are entitled to compensation for other losses that you experience that don’t have a direct financial impact but which affect your quality of life.

For example, your injuries might cause you physical and mental pain and interfere with your ability to do activities you enjoyed (such as if you are no longer able to ride a bike due to a leg injury). You are entitled to receive injury compensation for this type of loss.

Non-economic damages can include payment for:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress or mental anguish resulting from the accidents and injuries
• Loss of consortium/loss of companionship if you cannot interact with loved ones in the same way or enjoy an intimate marital relationship with your partner any more due to the accident or injuries
• Disfigurement
• Loss of enjoyment of life

It can be harder to calculate this type of damage. When estimating how much a case should settle for, insurers use methods such as the per diem or multiplier method. The per diem method pays you a set amount of money (often a day’s wages) for past and future days involving pain. The multiplier method multiples your economic damages by a set number (usually 1.5 to 5 times actual damages depending on injury severity).

A personal injury lawyer helps you document the extent of these losses so you can maximize the compensation available.

Punitive Damages

If a defendant’s conduct is more than merely negligent but was intentionally harmful or showed a reckless disregard for your safety, it is possible your injury compensation may include punitive damages.

Punitive damages are not designed to make you whole or pay you for actual losses. Instead, punitive damages punish the defendant for harming you. The court decides the amount of punitive damages that should be levied, if any, based on the severity of the defendant’s actions.

Wrongful Death Damages

Wrongful death damages are available when a person is killed due to the negligence or intentional wrongdoing of others. The estate of the deceased person or close family members, such as spouses, may be entitled to make a wrongful death claim.

Damages in wrongful death cases can include payment for:

• Medical bills incurred before death
• Pain and suffering experienced before death from the injury
• Funeral and burial expenses
• Loss of the financial contribution the deceased would have made for the rest of their life if it hadn’t been cut short
• Emotional distress and mental anguish surviving family members experienced due to the death
• Loss of companionship or loss of consortium which provides compensation to surviving loved ones for the loss of the relationship shared with the deceased

Some of these damages can be more difficult to calculate, such as how much lost companionship is actually worth. A personal injury lawyer can assist in providing evidence as to the closeness of the relationship and the severity of the loss.

In some cases, there are limits on how much money you can expect to collect in injury compensation.

Tort Reform Limits on Injury Compensation

Some states have passed tort reform laws that limit the amount of compensation victims can receive in certain injury claims. For example, non-economic damages and punitive damages may be capped.

These laws are especially common in medical malpractice cases as many states embraced tort reform to try to limit doctor liability in order to lower healthcare costs.

If tort reform laws apply to your case, your attorney can help you to understand how these rules affect your injury compensation.

Insurance Policy Limits

In many situations, you will be dealing with an insurance company that will ultimately be paying out compensation to you for your injury. This could be a malpractice insurer, car insurer, home insurer or business liability insurer.

Insurance companies have policy limits applicable to liability claims. While you can pursue a claim for more than the policy limit, the insurer won’t have to pay the excess. You are left trying to collect from the defendant personally, which can be hard if the defendant doesn’t have many assets or a substantial income.

It’s important to be aware of how these potential limits on injury compensation could affect your ability to fully recover damages for all of your losses.

If you have been hurt by someone’s negligence or wrongdoing, contact an experienced personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. Your attorney can help you begin gathering evidence so you can prove liability and the extent of loss. Providing proof the defendant was at fault and caused you serious damage helps maximize your compensation.

There are two different approaches to obtain the funds you deserve. You could settle outside of court or move forward with an injury lawsuit. A settlement involves negotiating with the defendant or insurer to reach an agreement wherein you settle for an agreed upon sum of money and give up any future claims. A lawsuit involves going to court, proving your case and letting the court decide compensation.

Settlements can be easier, faster and less risky than a lawsuit since you know exactly how much compensation you are going to end up with. But you must give up any future claims arising from the same incident, so be sure you are aware of the extent of your loss and are comfortable receiving the proposed compensation amount.

It’s important to negotiate the settlement aggressively rather than just accepting whatever the insurer offers to ensure you receive the best possible deal.

If you cannot reach a settlement, filing court paperwork is the next step. This can be complicated and you must act within the statute of limitations (the time limit your state sets for injury claims). Be sure to get legal help at this phase if you have not already done so.