Personal injury cases are some of the most common lawsuits Pennsylvania residents file. These cases generally involve both general and special damages, and if you are the victim of a personal injury, it’s essential that you understand what these terms mean and how they might affect the compensation that you receive.
Personal injury cases can be complex, and before you can understand what special damages are in a personal injury case, it’s helpful to have a better view of the full picture. Here is everything you need to know about special damages, as well as the other types of damages that are often present in a personal injury case.
What is Personal Injury Compensation?
In the state of Pennsylvania and most other states around the country, victims of personal injuries are entitled to personal injury compensation. Victims of personal injuries can incur all sorts of losses, including financial hardships from medical bills and lost wages, as well as significant emotional stress and permanent reductions in their everyday quality of life.
While oftentimes no amount of money can make up for these losses, personal injury compensation is money that is given to the victim to compensate them for their hardships.
Compensatory Damages vs. Punitive Damages
When calculating the dollar amount that someone is owed after a personal injury, this compensation can essentially be split up into two different types of damages.
The first type of damages is compensatory damages. Special damages, as well as general damages, fall into this category, and these types of damages do precisely what their name states. They act as a way to compensate the victim for the losses that they incurred due to the accident.
The second type of damages that a personal injury victim may receive is punitive damages. This type of damage is much less common, and most personal injury victims don’t receive them at all because they don’t cover any expenses or other losses. Punitive damages are instead given to a victim as a way to punish the defendant in cases of extreme negligence and discourage anyone else from acting similarly in the future.
What Are Special Damages in a Personal Injury Case?
Special damages, or economic damages, fall under the compensatory side of things. These damages act to compensate personal injury victims for the financial losses that they suffer due to an accident.
These types of damages cover a number of different financial losses, from medical bills and property damage to wages that the victim loses while they recover. They can also cover any future medication or rehab that the victim needs to pay for in the future, as well as any further medical care that the victim may need due to the injury in the future.
Special damages in a personal injury case are generally the easiest type of damages to calculate because they have exact, provable dollar amounts. All a victim needs to do is collect their medical bills, past pay stubs, and potentially any receipts from lost property, and they’ll be able to add it all up and put an exact number on the special damages that the victim should receive.
What Are General Damages in a Personal Injury Case?
In addition to special damages, personal injury victims can also receive general damages after an accident. These damages are a bit more abstract and can be a lot harder to put a dollar amount on, but they can still be a significant portion of the compensation that a victim receives.
General damages don’t compensate a personal injury victim for financial losses like special damages do. They instead act as compensation for all the emotional distress and psychological trauma that a victim goes through during and after an accident.
Personal injuries can be incredibly traumatic for their victims and can have long-lasting effects on someone’s everyday quality of life. Even someone who walks away from an accident with only a few broken bones goes through a lot of trauma, but many aren’t so lucky. Some victims come out of their accidents with permanent disabilities that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
While it’s incredibly difficult to put a value on the ramifications of these types of injuries, general damages can act as a silver lining that, at the very least, attempt to compensate a personal injury victim for their pain and suffering, both past and future.
Contact HoeyLegal Today
Are you or someone you know the recent victim of a personal injury? Are you looking for a personal injury lawyer that you can trust to win your case? Give HoeyLegal a call.
Here at HoeyLegal, we’re proud to be Chester County’s leading personal injury law firm. With decades of legal experience and countless won personal injury cases under our belts, you can trust that we have what it takes to get you the compensation you deserve.
From car accidents and slips and falls to medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, and many more, our team understands just how stressful dealing with these situations can be, but we believe that no one should have to suffer through these situations alone. Our team is always here to be your trusted advocate during such hard times, and we’ll even offer you a free legal consultation to help you get the ball rolling.
Don’t settle for a penny less than what you deserve. Call HoeyLegal and get the expert legal representation you need to win your personal injury case today!