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The losses for which a plaintiff might be compensated are the damages. Sometimes they are referred to as the compensable losses. The total value for all the damages suggests the amount that should be awarded to the injured party.
Two types of damages
• Special or economic: The monetary value for these should be easy to calculate.
• General or non-economic: The monetary figure that would cover such damages could prove hard to calculate.
A general damage has taken place as a natural result of the defendant’s actions. By focusing on that definition, the attorney for the plaintiff can more easily counter an argument that the plaintiff’s existing medical condition was partly responsible for a given injury.
Categories that include an example of some general damage
• Pain and suffering
• Disfigurement of some body part
• Physical impairments
• Cases of mental anguish
• Loss of companionship (This category enters the picture at the time of a wrongful death lawsuit.)
The victim faces a future with a diminished quality of life. Maybe the victim’s personal injury lawyer in North Bay could show that a client might have to undergo repeated operations. That would make it hard to keep a given job. It would also mean that more time devoted to the task of finding a new job, a task that leaves no time for other endeavors.
Features linked to any special damage
If provides the lawyer with a clear reason for seeking financial compensation for a client. Evidence must prove that this contributed to the expenses handed to an injured victim. Documents that could serve as evidence would include an estimate for repairs to a damaged automobile and a set of medical bills.
Types of special damages
Harm done to any piece of the plaintiff’s property: In a car accident, that would be the vehicle’s value at that point in time. If the victim had been assaulted while wearing valuable jewelry, then that loss would add to the size of this category of damage.
Wages that plaintiff could not take home while recovering from accident; Even if a worker receives workers’ compensation, that will be less than what the same worker could have earned, if he or she had been able to show up at a given workplace.
Plaintiff loses capacity to earn a living: This would be a damage that could be due to appearance of a physical deformity, one that resulted from the accidental occurrence.
Past and future medical expenses: future expenses might include therapy, home care or the cost of special equipment.
Loss of any irreplaceable items: The chances for the loss of such items would be greater, if the accident had taken place in the victim’s home, or in the home of a close relative.