COMPENSATORY DAMAGES
There are some days when the world just doesn’t seem fair. Maybe the landlord is raising the rent faster than you can pay it, or maybe at work you get blamed for something that isn’t your fault. In life, there is not always justice but occasionally there can be justice for you if you have a valid personal injury claim.
As personal injury lawyers, we can tell you that in injury cases, it is common for courts to award legal remedies in the form of damages to victorious plaintiffs. There can be different types of damages awarded depending on the amount and type of harm suffered or anticipated.
How Is Compensation Determined?
Some of the damages might be devoted to paying for your medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident, while others may be devoted to making up for the time you were unable to work as a result of your injury.
For example, if you have a job that requires you to do a lot of walking you might be unable to work for a while if you break your leg. If the defendant is found liable for causing this broken leg a court could order you to be paid the value of your lost wages during the period you were unable to work, plus for the amount of money it cost to hire doctors to treat the broken leg.
It is often not so easy to put a dollar value on other types of damage suffered in the wake of a personal injury case. You could be in pain as a result of your injuries, to take a common example. General damages compensate the plaintiff for ‘pain, suffering and loss of amenity’. Lastly, in rare cases punitive damages can also be awarded if it is found that a defendant acted especially badly.