Potential Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

In Florida, there are different categories of damages that may be recoverable from those who are at fault for causing you or your loved ones harm as a result of an accident or injury. If you have been seriously injured, the promptly call our personal injury law firm for an experienced and dedicated personal injury lawyer.

The financial recovery, or compensation, which you will be eligible to receive always depends on the kinds of harms and losses you or your loved ones suffered or are suffering.

Several factors are involved in determining the amount of your personal injury damages, including:

• Nature of the injury
• Permanency of the injury
• Nature of the accident
• • for example, in a car accident, was there significant property damage?
  • was there a significant impact?
• Degree of liability of the at-fault party
• • for example, were you partially at fault or contributor, through your own actions or inactions, to your injury?
• Causal relationship between your injury and the accident
• • did the accident cause a new injury
  • did the accident aggravate a pre-existing condition?
  • is there medical proof of a new injury or exacerbation of an existing condition
  • • for example, were there any diagnostic films, such as CT or MRI or x-ray, taken which showed the injury?
    • did your treating physician tell you, or more importantly, record in his or her medical notes, that your injury was caused by the accident?
• Did you suffer economic losses?
• • have you lost wages or income because of the accident?
  • what is the amount of your medical bills (even if private insurance paid them, as often, that insurance company will have a right to be paid back; see Health Care Liens)

Here are examples of legal compensation a plaintiff may recover in a personal injury lawsuit:

• Compensatory damages are for the purpose of returning a plaintiff in the position that existed before the harm was done, or to make the victim of a wrongful act “whole again.”
  
• • • Compensatory damages can be divided into economic, and non-economic, damages
      
  • Non-economic damages
  • • These general damages are applied to compensate the personal injury victim for physical and mental pain and suffering endured as the result of an accident.
    • They are proven with testimony about the bodily injury's effects on an accident victim's life, as physical pain endured, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and inability to perform activities previously done (or done now with limits)
    • Although this category of damages does not have a finite quantity, such harm occurs as the result of a wrongful act and compensation is therefore awarded.
      
  • Economic Damages
  • Also known as "special damages," this category applies to losses due to circumstances after the harm or losses have occurred, and include such items as medical expenses and lost income
    
  • • Recovery of economic losses requires detailed proof that the losses were sustained as a result of the injury in question, and proof
      
  • Future damages are for anticipated additional harms or losses that will result from the injury or accident are also covered in this category.
  • • There must be a foundation -- evidence -- to prove future harms and losses, which can come in the form of testimony from the injury victim, treating physicians, medical experts, vocational rehabilitation experts, life care planners, and economists.
    • Without such evidence, proven by a preponderance of the evidence (or "more likely than not"), such damages will be considered speculative and not subject to recovery.
      
  • Incidental damages include reasonable expenses, charges, or other costs that flow from the harm or loss. They may include such items as the cost of travel expenses to and form doctors' offices.

In Florida, an injured person seeking compensation for personal injury generally has a legal obligation to minimize, to the extent possible, the consequences of the harm suffered. This obligation of the injured party may include undergoing appropriate medical care or seeking alternative employment if his or her usual line of work cannot be continued.

Called "mitigation of damages," the plaintiff can be denied part of the damages a court or jury deems could reasonably have been avoided. If, for example, a plaintiff engages in behavior or activities contrary to the treating doctor's orders, he or she may not recover damages for further injury or harm that could have been avoided by failing to abide by the doctor's recommendations. Delay in seeking treatment after an injury has occurred may likewise reduce the amount of compensation for recovery.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to the wrongful conduct or a person or company, whether caused by an car accident, traffic accident, slip and fall, or other negligent conduct, then please contact us.

Our experienced personal injury attorneys will listen to you, answer questions, and discuss your injury claim or accident lawsuit, all in an effort to determine if we can help you recover financial compensation for your harms and losses.

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