Personal injury cases are some of the most commonly filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, and it’s not hard to see why. Accidents are an unfortunate fact of life, and when they happen, Pennsylvania law states that victims have the right to seek personal injury compensation from the at-fault party.
If you suspect that you're the victim of a personal injury, it's essential to seek out legal representation to help you get the compensation that you deserve, but it's also helpful to understand the ins and outs of personal injury compensation to determine whether you have a case to begin with, so just what constitutes a personal injury in the first place and what types of damages can you receive for your personal injury case?
What is a Personal Injury?
Personal injury is a broad term that encompasses any physical or psychological harm caused by someone else's negligence or intentional actions. In simpler terms, if you have recently sustained an injury that wasn't your fault, you may have a valid personal injury case to pursue.
Personal injuries come in all different shapes and sizes. It could be anything from a car accident caused by a reckless driver or a work accident caused by unsafe work conditions to injuries from medical malpractice, defective products, and many more.
While there is an almost endless list of situations that may constitute a personal injury, as long as you can prove that someone else is at fault, you have the right to seek compensation for your losses.
What Type of Damages Can You Receive For Your Personal Injury
Every personal injury case is different, and the damages that you receive for your particular case will vary widely depending on the specific details of your case.
There are three different types of damages that you may receive as a result of your personal injury case, and it’s important to understand all three if you want to get a good idea of what compensation the at-fault party may owe you.
Special or Economic Damages
The first type of damages that you may receive from your personal injury case is called special or economic damages. These damages are generally the easiest to calculate as they compensate for direct economic losses due to the injury.
Personal injuries can have both immediate and long-term financial consequences that include everything from medical bills, rehab costs, and potential future medical care costs to lost wages or capacity to earn wages in the future due to being unable to work.
General or Non-Economic Damages
The second type of personal injury damages are general or non-economic damages, which, unlike economic damages, are much more difficult to calculate.
The purpose of non-economic damages is to compensate victims for the emotional and psychological stress that they had and will have to suffer as a result of the accident. Particularly, traumatic injuries that cause a great deal of pain and suffering tend to have larger payouts of non-economic damages.
Many of these types of injuries may also come with long-lasting consequences that may prevent you from enjoying your life to the extent that you did before, leading to an even higher award for non-economic damages.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are much less common than the other two types of damages, but they are still something you'll need to consider when thinking about the damages you may receive from your personal injury case.
These types of damages are only awarded in personal injury cases where the accident was due to extreme recklessness or negligence on the part of the third party. They essentially act as a punishment to penalize the third party for their extreme recklessness as well as a deterrent to prevent the at-fault party or any others from acting in a similar way in the future.
Punitive damages are, again, quite difficult to calculate, and the vast majority of personal injury settlements exclude these types of damages in the future.
How Much is My Personal Injury Claim Worth?
Now that you know all about the different types of damages that make up personal injury compensation, you may just be wondering how much your particular claim is worth.
Calculating the payout of a personal injury case can be nearly impossible until you know the final verdict of your case, but that doesn’t mean you have to be completely clueless when pursuing your case.
The final value of your claim is always the sum of the three types of personal injury damages, and considering that economic damages are pretty easy to calculate, this gives you a good starting point.
The other two types of damages, on the other hand, are much less straightforward, and you’ll likely need to seek help from an experienced personal injury lawyer who can analyze all the evidence, deal with insurance companies, and look through past cases to get a good estimate.
Ultimately, the value of your case will depend on the judge or jury who hears your case, so no matter what estimate you come up with beforehand, you won’t be able to know exactly what compensation you get until the case is over.
Contact HoeyLegal Today
Are you looking for a Chester County personal injury attorney that you can trust to win your case? Look no further than HoeyLegal.
HoeyLegal is Chester County's premier personal injury law firm, specializing in everything from auto accidents and slip and falls to medical malpractice, nursing home negligence, and many more. Their team of personal injury experts has extensive experience working with all sorts of personal injury cases and has a proven track record that includes winning tens of millions of dollars for their clients.
All you have to do is call, and their team will help you schedule a free consultation where they'll take the time to get to know you and your case and will tell you more about your options and how they can help you get the compensation that you deserve.
If you're the victim of a recent personal injury, don't push off pursuing your case any longer. Call HoeyLegal and get the expert legal representation you need to get fair and just compensation for your losses today!