What Are Compensatory Damages?

The injuries you suffer in an accident that someone else caused can have a ripple effect. You may face mounting medical bills for treatment, physical therapy, and pain medication. You might miss significant time from work to recover from your injuries and attend medical appointments. In some cases, long-term disabilities might even force you to change your job or working hours, significantly diminishing your earning potential.

Fortunately, a personal injury attorney in Alabama can help you seek compensation for these losses. Take a closer look at how the amount you recover can compensate you for both your financial and intangible losses like pain and suffering.

The Purpose of Compensatory Damages

Lawyers use the term “damages” to refer to a remedy under the law in which a court awards you a sum of money. This usage can cause confusion because damages are not the same as damage. A court can award damages (money) for the damage (harm) to your vehicle.

As the phrase suggests, compensatory damages are a remedy to compensate you for losses. These damages rest on a straightforward legal principle: people should bear the burden of the losses caused by their negligent or wrongful actions. This system encourages everyone to act with reasonable caution to avoid paying for the losses that occur when they injure others and damage property.

This process is also based on fairness. Victims should not get stuck with the unavoidable losses resulting from someone else’s carelessness. Instead, the person or business responsible for harming them should compensate them for these losses.

Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana has successfully recovered millions of dollars in compensatory damages for injured clients. Contact us online or at (251) 444-7000 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your injuries and the compensatory damages we can pursue in your case.

Types of Compensatory Damages

These damages can compensate a claimant for two types of losses: economic and non-economic.

Economic Losses

Economic losses represent all the financial consequences of the at-fault party’s actions. For example, economic losses include the cost to repair or replace your vehicle after a car accident. They also include the out-of-pocket costs you incur due to the loss of your vehicle, such as towing fees and rental car expenses.

These same principles apply to your bodily injuries, too. The money you pay for treatment, rehabilitation, and medication qualify as economic losses. Similarly, these losses also include the wages your injuries prevented you from earning. Thus, some common examples of economic losses include the following:

• Bills from doctors and hospitals
• Ambulance charges
• Out-of-pocket expenses for medical supplies and over-the-counter medicine
• Costs to replace household services you cannot perform, like cleaning
• Lost wages
• Diminished future earnings from long-term or permanent injuries.

You can recover compensation only for foreseeable losses proximately caused by the at-fault party’s acts. “Proximate cause” means that the foreseeable loss was a natural result of those acts. This does not mean the other party had to foresee your exact injuries or losses. Instead, the law simply requires that they be the type of loss that a reasonable person would expect to result from the accident or traumatic event.

The losses must also flow logically from the incident. This means that accident victims cannot recover compensation for losses resulting from a pre-existing injury. However, they can seek compensation when an accident worsens or aggravates a pre-existing injury, requiring new or additional treatment.

Non-Economic Losses

Non-economic losses represent the impact of your injuries on your quality of life. These losses are often called “pain and suffering.” Physical pain can make you miserable. It can keep you awake at night since you cannot find a comfortable position to rest.

Mental anguish and suffering can also arise from health worries and financial instability. You might feel anxious or hopeless about your situation. Aside from the mental suffering you experience, these concerns might begin to affect your physical health, causing headaches, digestive issues, and sleep disorders.

You might experience emotional and physical distress due to your particular injury or situation as well. Disfiguring scars or amputations might cause social anxiety about how people will treat you. Permanent disabilities might raise self-esteem issues as you potentially face a lifetime of physical and financial dependence on others.

Notably, some of these quality-of-life losses will have both economic and non-economic aspects. For example, after suffering a burn injury, you may require expensive surgeries to treat your scars. The scars might also cause physical pain and mental suffering. In general, you can recover compensation for both types of losses because they address different aspects of your injury.

Documenting Your Losses for a Compensatory Damage Award

An injury lawsuit typically starts with establishing liability. Your injury lawyer can prove a person or business is liable for your injuries because of negligence, intentional harm, or strict liability. The legal theory used for your case will depend on your relationship with the allegedly at-fault party and how you were injured. Most vehicle accident cases rely on negligence, while most product liability claims fall under strict liability.

Once your lawyer proves liability, the next step is to prove your losses. A jury can award compensatory damages only for losses you can support with evidence. Proving your economic losses will typically require financial records to show your costs and income losses due to your injuries, such as:

• Bills
• Receipts
• Credit card and bank statements
• Pay stubs
• Tax filings.

If you suffered long-term injuries, your lawyer might hire an expert witness to explain how your injuries will affect your future earning capacity.

Non-economic losses do not have an inherent value. Instead, the court will likely instruct the jury to exercise its common sense in awarding compensatory damages for them. Factors that can affect a jury’s award include the severity and duration of your injuries. As a result, medical records can help support your non-economic losses. The jury will also consider your testimony about your injuries and the pain and suffering they caused.

Find Out Whether You Are Eligible to Pursue Compensatory Damages

Compensatory damages help you move forward from the financial and quality-of-life losses you experienced due to your injuries. At Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana, our seasoned attorneys have decades of experience fighting for fair compensation — at both the negotiating table and in the courtroom.

You deserve justice after suffering injuries someone else caused. Contact Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana online or at (251) 444-7000 for a free consultation to discuss how we can help you recover the compensation you may be entitled to seek under Alabama law.