Personal Damages – What Makes You Eligible for a Case?
Personal damages are an important aspect of a legal case and they can help you get the money you need to deal with your injury. They may be awarded for punitive damages or they may be awarded to cover loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, or loss of consortium.
Pain and suffering
Pain and suffering is a term used to describe non-economic damages that result from a physical or psychological injury. It can refer to physical pain, emotional distress, or psychological trauma.
There are several methods of calculating the amount of pain and suffering compensation that can be awarded. These include the multiplier method and the per diem method.
The multiplier method is the most common way of calculating a fair pain and suffering settlement. This technique involves multiplying the plaintiff’s economic damages by a factor ranging from 1.5 to five. A higher multiplier means more compensation.
The per diem method is a less common method. This method assigns a dollar value to each day from the date of the accident to the maximum recovery date.
Medical records are useful tools in quantifying pain and suffering. They often contain notes from doctors describing how the patient felt during the injury and what activities they expect to do to recover.
Loss of consortium
If your spouse was injured in a car accident, you may be able to recover damages for loss of consortium. It is one of the two types of non-economic damages that you can get.
This type of damage is intended to help you deal with the hardships you face after an injury. The amount of damages you can receive will depend on several factors. Your state may limit the amount you can receive.
In order to get compensation for loss of consortium, you must be able to prove the extent of the damages you have sustained. In most cases, you will need to hire an attorney to help you with this part of your case.
Traditionally, only the injured spouse can file for loss of consortium. However, some states have expanded the claim to include close relatives. Often, a spouse can be awarded compensation for the loss of sexual relationships, emotional support, and the ability to have children with their partner.
Loss of enjoyment of life
Loss of enjoyment of life is a legal term that describes a problem with the quality of a person’s life that results from an injury. A loss of enjoyment can be emotional or physical, or it can be a generalized feeling of sadness.
If you are suffering from a severe accident that has a lasting effect on your life, you may want to seek compensation for the damages you have incurred. You can pursue a personal injury lawsuit to recover economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are the ones you can see, such as medical bills. Non-economic damages are more subjective.
The amount you receive for losses of enjoyment of life will depend on many factors. For example, you would receive a larger sum if you were a younger person who had been severely injured. Similarly, you would get more compensation if your injury was a catastrophic one, such as being paralyzed.
When calculating losses of enjoyment of life, your attorney will need to provide some basic information about your past life. This could include the activities you were involved in prior to the accident, and any information about your health before the accident.
Punitive damages
Punitive damages are awarded to punish the defendant. They are usually imposed in cases where compensatory damages are not adequate. In some cases, punitive damages can be very large. The goal is to deter the defendant from engaging in similar behavior in the future.
Punitive damages may be appropriate when a company or individual acted recklessly, was careless, or committed misconduct in an effort to deceive the public. These types of damages may also be appropriate for acts of fraud.
To prove punitive damages, the plaintiff must show that the defendant intentionally or wantonly caused injury. This can be difficult to prove. A jury will decide how much money to award and whether the plaintiff will get more than the amount of compensatory damages.
While there is no specific test to determine whether the plaintiff will be awarded punitive damages, a number of objective factors will be considered by the jury. These include the reprehensibility of the defendant’s conduct, the nature of the injury, the extent of the injuries, and the permanency of the injury.