A Catastrophic Injury May Upend Your Life, But Laws Concerning Non-Economic Damage Caps May Limit Your Compensation
Colorado personal injury cases involve life-altering injuries, excruciating pain and suffering, and losses that go far beyond what appears on bills and pay stubs. Still, non-economic damage caps may mean that injury victims might not recover all the damages they deserve.
Successful injury plaintiffs may be able to recover so-called “hard costs,” money they have or will spend on medical costs, as well as income they have lost or will lose because of their injury. However, the same does not hold true for other types of losses. Colorado law limits the amounts that injury victims can recover for specific categories of damages, including intangible but genuine losses such as pain and suffering and loss of quality of life.
Here is what you need to understand about what non-economic damage caps mean in Colorado personal injury cases.
What Are Economic Damages?
Damages a successful personal injury plaintiff can recover in a Colorado personal injury lawsuit fall into two main categories, economic and non-economic. “Economic damages” reflect the tangible, quantifiable loss of money that the injury victim has lost or spent already and will lose or spend in the future due to the injuries caused by the defendant. This includes items such as:
- Past medical expenses
- Rehabilitation costs
- Costs of future medical care
- Past lost wages
- Loss of future earning potential
- Property damage
An El Paso County judge or jury can usually calculate such sums by looking at bills, receipts, and pay stubs.
What are Non-Economic Damages?
However, not all fallout from a serious injury appears on a bill or a spreadsheet. What is the dollar value of being unable to ride a bike, play catch with your child, or just do something as simple as going on a pleasant, pain-free walk? How much is intense and ongoing pain worth? What figure accurately reflects the value of lost intimacy with your spouse or the psychological and emotional toll of not being able to support your family?
These are “non-economic damages,” and they include what is commonly known as “pain and suffering,” as well as compensation for loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium (how your spouse gets compensation for your injuries), and mental anguish. While these losses are just as real as economic ones and can comprise the bulk of a settlement amount or judgment, they don’t lend themselves to the same easy or uniform calculations as economic damages. Two different juries looking at the same injuries and non-economic losses could award wildly different sums.
Since non-economic damages are subject to such uncertainty and could far exceed amounts awarded for economic losses, Colorado legislators decided that there should be limits on these types of damages. So, no matter how much a judge or jury thinks a plaintiff should receive for their non-economic losses, the law caps the amount they can actually recover.
Related: Can You Trust Personal Injury Settlement Calculators?
Non-Economic Damage Caps Differ Depending on the Type of Personal Injury Case
Colorado’s non-economic damage caps in injury cases vary depending on the type of claim and when it accrued. The law provides that the Colorado Secretary of State can raise the caps intermittently to account for inflation. The most recent adjustment in February 2022 states that injury cases that accrue (that is, the injury occurs) on and after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2024, have the following non-economic damage caps:
- For Non-economic Losses or Injuries: $613,760, which an El Paso County judge or jury can increase to a maximum of $1,227,530 upon clear and convincing evidence as to the extent of damages.
- For Derivative Non-economic Loss or Injury: $613,760.
- For Non-Economic Loss in Wrongful Death Actions: $571,870.
- For Dram Shop Act Claims (injury claims against an intoxicated person or those that served them): $368,260.
- For Solatium Damages (foregoing the need to prove pain and suffering damages and accepting a set sum for same): $114,370.
- Medical Malpractice: $1,000,000 total damages, of which no more than $300,000 may be for pain and suffering.
Because of the complicated legal language inherent to non-economic damage caps, Colorado Springs injury victims seeking maximum compensation for their losses do well to hire a local personal injury attorney with the experience and tenacity to represent them and their interests.
Helping Personal Injuries Victims Fight For Every Dollar They Deserve
At King & Beaty, our experienced Colorado Springs personal injury and accident attorneys understand the struggles and challenges that injury victims and their families face after a serious accident upends their lives. We fight tirelessly to get our clients the maximum compensation available under the law for their injuries.
Please contact us today to arrange for your free initial consultation.
