Damages in a Personal Injury

San Antonio Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

If you or someone you love has been hurt in an accident, you may attempt to seek compensation for your injuries through a personal injury lawsuit.

The value of this lawsuit will ultimately depend on the amount of damages you have accrued in the accident. In legal terms, “damages” refers to the amount of money that a plaintiff receives from the defendant (or the defendant’s insurance company) due to injuries sustained in an accident caused by the defendant. In the state of Texas, there are two broad categories for damages: special damages and general damages.

Special Damages

This category is the most straightforward, as it refers to damages that have an explicit monetary value associated with them. A few examples of special damages (also called economic damages) include:

• Past and future medical bills
• Repair or replacement costs for a victim’s property
• Court and legal fees
• Wages lost from time spent away from work
• Lost potential income or earning capacity

Most of these damages are relatively straightforward, though lost potential income requires some explanation. As an example, let us say that a plaintiff loses his hand in an industrial accident. The plaintiff was previously employed on a factory floor and was making approximately $55,000 per year. Since the plaintiff no longer has his hand, he cannot effectively perform his chosen profession any longer. Therefore, he is entitled to compensation for his lost potential income. If we assume that the plaintiff would have continued working for another 30 years before retiring, then the plaintiff would be entitled to approximately $1.7 million in lost earning capacity damages alone.

General Damages

These damages are more subjective and cannot be directly assigned a monetary value. The value of these damages is calculated on a case-by-case basis and depends on a number of different factors. Some examples of special damages are:

• Physical pain and suffering
• Mental or emotional anguish
• Physical impairment
• Disfigurement
• Loss of consortium
• Inconvenience
• Damage to a victim’s reputation

As you can imagine, assigning a monetary value to these types of injuries is not easy, especially considering how differently they affect different people. For example, consider a theoretical construction accident. Two workers are injured in a building collapse. Their injuries are almost identical, the cost of their medical treatment is the same, and they both lost an equal amount of wages. Their special damages would be virtually identical in value. But let us say that victim A was knocked unconscious in the accident, while victim B was conscious virtually the entire time, and had to experience the pain associated with his injuries. Victim B would therefore be entitled to compensation for the suffering he endured, whereas victim A, who was unconscious, would not.

As another example, consider a plaintiff injured in a car accident. In the accident, the plaintiff receives an unsightly facial scar. If the plaintiff is a 50-year-old lumberjack, he may not be very concerned about a small facial scar, and so he would likely not receive much compensation for it (despite receiving full compensation for the rest of his injuries). But if the plaintiff is a 22-year-old model, then his or her life could be greatly altered by a small facial scar. The scar would effectively cause much more damage to the model’s life, and so he or she would be entitled to a large amount of compensation for the same injury.

As you can see, calculating the true costs of an accident is a complex process. But experienced San Antonio personal injury lawyer Michael Grossman know how to properly account for and document all the injuries a victim receives in an accident. Our firm is dedicated to making sure that you are compensated for the full extent of your injuries. We have twenty years of experience helping people seek compensation through personal injury lawsuits, and we have faced every major insurance carrier in the country. In many cases, we can secure a fair settlement without taking a case to court, simply because insurance companies know who we are and they do not want to face us in trial. The bottom line is that our attorneys will fight aggressively to defend your rights and ensure that you are fully compensated. So if you or a loved one has been hurt in an accident, contact San Antonio personal injury attorney Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices today, and make sure you receive the settlement you deserve.