Types of damages in a personal injury case

Economic damages are the costs you can document with a receipt, bill, or pay stub. They include medical expenses (emergency room, hospital, surgery, rehabilitation, prescriptions, medical equipment), lost wages, lost future earning capacity, property damage, and out-of-pocket costs like travel to medical appointments.

These damages are calculated by adding up actual and projected costs. Projections for future medical care often require input from doctors, life-care planners, or economists.

Non-economic damages compensate for losses that don’t come with a receipt. They include physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and loss of consortium (the impact on a spouse’s relationship with the injured person).

These are harder to put a number on. Adjusters and attorneys use several methods — multiplying medical specials, per diem calculations, comparable case results — to arrive at a reasonable figure.

Some states cap non-economic damages in certain types of cases. An attorney can tell you whether a cap applies to your claim.

Punitive damages are not available in most injury cases. They apply where the at-fault party’s conduct was especially reckless, malicious, or conscious-disregard-of-safety — drunk driving, knowing violation of safety rules, fraud, or intentional harm.

The purpose is to punish the conduct and deter similar conduct in the future. Because punitive damages are extra, they are available only on top of compensatory damages, not instead of them.

Attorney fees and most litigation costs are not separately recoverable in personal injury cases (outside of specific fee-shifting statutes). Under a contingency agreement, these come out of the recovery rather than on top of it.

Collateral sources — amounts paid by your own health insurance, sick leave, or disability coverage — may or may not reduce the claim depending on your state’s collateral-source rule.