Not All Damages From An Accident Show Up On Paper
After suffering injuries in a car accident in Colorado Springs, you have many questions, and very likely, the first is what damages can you claim in a personal injury lawsuit. After all, the negligent driver that caused the accident should be held accountable for the pain and other losses you’ve experienced. These losses should include the money you’ve lost, the money you’ve spent, and the other intangible damage they caused.
Ensuring that injury victims receive compensation for losses caused by others’ negligence is the rationale behind personal injury lawsuits and the reason that Colorado law requires all drivers to have liability insurance on their vehicles. (The negligent driver’s car insurance company is the party that will most likely be paying for their client’s negligence.)
Damages, along with fault and causation, are an essential element of any car accident lawsuit. Our civil justice system largely follows the maxim “no harm, no foul,” meaning you won’t have a case if you suffered no injury, property damage, or other actual losses. Of course, the reality is that car accidents usually involve plenty of harm and plenty of foul.
What Damages Can You Claim In A Car Accident Lawsuit?
The short answer is that you can seek compensation to make up for all of the ways your life is changing because of your accident and injuries. This includes not only out-of-pocket costs and other financial losses but also the physical, emotional, psychological, and practical impact that your injuries have had on your life.
The longer answer to what damages you can claim involves understanding the two main types of damages involved in Colorado car accident lawsuits: damages for economic and non-economic losses. While punitive damages are recoverable in rare car accident cases, they are not usually part of a settlement or verdict.
Related: Do I Really Need A Personal Injury Lawyer?
Economic Damages
Economic damages consist of sums El Paso County judges or juries can reasonably calculate by looking at bills, receipts, and pay stubs, documents that prove the amount of money the plaintiff has lost or spent already and will lose or spend in the months and years ahead due to the injuries caused by the defendant. These items may include:
- Past medical expenses
- Rehabilitation costs
- Costs of future medical care
- Past lost wages
- Loss of future earning potential
- Property damage
Many of these economic damages are “hard” numbers, such as medical costs incurred to date or the cost of repairing or replacing your vehicle. But a significant portion of economic damages, often the larger part of a settlement or award, involves losses not yet experienced. Medical care and treatment or rehabilitation you will require in the months and years ahead resulting from the injuries sustained in the car accident are part of what damages you can claim in a car accident lawsuit.
While you may know precisely how much in wages you have lost while you’ve been unable to work, you can also recover compensation for the money you may no longer earn in the future due to your injuries. For example, suppose you are a carpenter paralyzed from the neck down or an accountant who suffered a catastrophic brain injury. In that case, your damages should include all the money you would have earned in your chosen occupation had the accident never occurred.
Such damages will depend on the nature and extent of your injuries, work history and prospects, and many other factors. In many car accident cases, the attorney for the injury victim will call upon expert witnesses to offer their opinions and testimony about such damages.
Non-Economic Damages
Not all of the fallout from a car accident shows up on a bill or a spreadsheet. What is the dollar value of being unable to play catch with your child, ride a bicycle, or play golf? How much is intense and lasting pain worth? What figure can you put on losing intimacy with your spouse or the emotional and psychological toll of no longer being able to support your family?
Related: Can a Spouse Get Compensation For a Partner’s Injury?
These damages are non-economic and include what is commonly referred to as “pain and suffering.” Non-economic losses are just as real as economic ones. They may comprise the bulk of what damages you can claim and be awarded as a settlement or judgment, especially where the plaintiff suffered catastrophic injuries such as paralysis or traumatic brain jury or lost their life in the accident. However, in Colorado, non-economic damage caps place limits on the amounts personal injury victims can claim as pain or suffering.
In settlement discussions, car insurance companies often use a “multiplier” to calculate the monetary value of these damages before making a settlement offer. That multiplier involves taking the actual economic damages claimed by the plaintiff and multiplying them 1.5 to 4 times to calculate an offer. Because insurers are looking out for their best interests, not those of the injury victim, they will attempt to devalue your claim. This is one of the reasons why you should never enter settlement discussions with a car insurance company without the aid of an experienced Colorado Springs personal injury and accident attorney.
To Maximize What Damages You Can Claim, Hire An Experienced Personal Injury Attorney
A car accident’s emotional and physical effects can be both immediate and far-reaching. If you have suffered injuries because of another driver’s negligence, you don’t have to face a future of uncertainty alone. Colorado Springs car accident lawyers at King and Beaty welcome the opportunity to help you get the compensation you deserve and need to move forward.
Speak with an experienced and compassionate Colorado Springs car accident attorney today.
