Personal injury claims are civil matters, not criminal, with the purpose of compensation the plaintiff (the victim) for injuries caused by others. No amount of money can undo what happened to you, but with the help of a skilled Louisville personal injury attorney, you may receive a settlement that can give you the means to recover and move on from the incident.
Kentucky permits personal injury plaintiffs to recover three types of damages in civil cases: Economic, non-economic, and punitive. Our attorneys break down what each of these types of personal injury damages includes and what may be available in your claim.
Economic damages
Economic damages are the actual losses you incurred because of the event, including:
- Medical care: All necessary curative care, a hospital or nursing home stay, prescription medications, or surgery
- Lost wages: All unearned wages from time you missed at work to heal from your injuries and trauma, plus replenishment of the sick time or PTO you used
- Loss of earning potential: If you cannot keep doing the job you had before the accident and must take a lower-paying one due to your new limitations, then we demand the difference between what you’ll earn now (including pensions and retirement contributions) and what you would have earned
- Property damage: This is most common in car collisions; we seek full coverage of all car repairs or enough coverage for a replacement vehicle and any reduction in the value of your vehicle after a wreck
Economic damages also include any other out-of-pocket expenses. If you have to travel for specialist care, you may receive compensation for mileage and a hotel stay; if you need a durable medical device or modifications to your home or vehicle to accommodate a new disability, your damages include those, too.
Non-economic damages
If you’re like many plaintiffs, you may realize that the trauma and pain of the incident lasts long after the wreck, especially if it was a traumatic accident like a nasty semi-truck wreck, dog mauling, or burn injury. Intangible losses like these are considered non-economic types of losses in personal injury.
Although it’s more difficult to quantify the value of pain and suffering than it is property damage, you wouldn’t have suffered them had you not been harmed by someone else’s negligence, so you’re entitled to fair compensation for it. The value of non-economic damages is often correlated to the value of economic damages; the worse your injury, the more you’ve suffered, and thus the higher the value of your pain. However, this is not always the case and depends on the facts and circumstances of your situation.
Punitive damages
Punitive damages are one of the types of damages in a lawsuit that not every plaintiff may qualify to receive. Also referred to as exemplary damages, punitive damages are punishing in nature rather than compensatory (making whole).
Usually, punitive damages are assessed when the defendant’s behavior is egregious and is often assessed against entities, like a manufacturer of a dangerous drug, where there is a pattern of bad behavior or where the entity knew of a risk and did it anyway.
Punitive damages also set an example to similar parties who may be tempted to engage in actions like the defendant’s. If there is a precedent for judges ruling to assess punitive damages for injured plaintiffs, other companies may not be as likely to cut corners with testing or safety for new products.
Do you need help getting damages from an accident?
Our attorneys strive to secure the maximum amount of each personal injury types of damages available in your claim. We use medical, financial, and vocational experts to help us better quantify the value of your losses so we don’t leave any money on the negotiating table. If you have been injured due to the negligence of another person or entity, please contact Grossman Green PLLC at (502) 657-7100 for a free consultation.