If you win a settlement in a personal injury case, you’re likely focused on the total sum of the compensation. However, what you are awarded is broken down into different types of damages. There are two broad categories of damages: compensatory and punitive.
Compensatory Damages
What was the victim’s financial, physical, and emotional state before the injury occurred? This is the starting point for the judge or jury in a personal injury case, because their job is to agree upon a sum that will bring that victim as close as possible to the quality of life and financial status they had prior to the incident.
Coming up with the figure for certain damages can be fairly straight forward, while others take deeper contemplation. Compensatory damages can be further broken down into two categories: monetary and non-monetary losses.
Monetary Losses - These losses usually have little ambiguity to them. For instance, what were the medical expenses incurred as a result of the victim’s injuries? Past medical expenses are straightforward, however if there are future expenses that will be incurred after the legal proceedings are done, they will need to be estimated, which will be based on expert testimony.
Additional monetary losses may come in the following forms:
