2 Types of Negligence Damages Awarded in Car Accident Cases

There are millions of car accident injury claims filed in the United States every year.

Usually, these cases cite driver negligence as the basis for their claims such as DUI, speeding, reckless driving and distracted driving.

Once their claim is approved, they will be awarded negligence damages or compensation for the loss the claimant sustained due to the negligence of the driver.

These negligence damages are normally referred to as compensatory damages.

Under this principle, the law aims to bring the claimant back to a position where he or she should have been if not for the injuries he or she sustained from the car accident.

Of course it is not as simple as that since there are things that cannot be given back.

Generally there are two types of compensatory or negligence damages, and those are:

Economic Damages

These are losses that the claimant sustained that automatically has a monetary value.

These are easier to compute because there is usually evidence that shows the exact amount lost.

Some examples of economic damages include:

• Medical bills and expenses – This includes medical treatment, doctor’s fees, rehabilitation, medications and hospital fees.

• Disability expenses – These refers to adjustments that will be made by the claimant to cope with a disabling injury such as house renovations to make it wheelchair friendly, in-home nurse, etc.

• Lost income – These refers to hours or days missed from work, or a claimant actually losing his or her job due to the injuries. This can be computed by reviewing the hours worked in a week and the hourly rate of the claimant before the car accident.

• Property damage - This refers to damages that your car sustained due to the collision; this will also include the properties that were damaged inside the car.

Non-Economic Damages

Now this is where it becomes more complicated. As said before, the aim is to bring the claimant back to where he was before the accident but that is sometimes not possible because what they lost are not tangible things.

What the courts or the insurance company will do is assign an appropriate monetary value for those losses instead.

Some examples of non-economic damages include:

• Pain and suffering – These are compensation for actual physical pain and emotional distress such as frustration and fear.

• Loss of consortium – This refers to losses sustained by a spouse such as lost affection, companionship, comfort and even sexual relations due to the injuries sustained from the car accident.

• Hedonic damages – This refers to the loss of enjoyment of life.

To make sure that the damages awarded are properly computed, make sure that you have your Los Angeles car accident lawyer check it before signing any release form or waiver.