How Are Damages Assessed In A Tort Case?

In a tort case, the assessment of damages reflects the object of the lawyer that is representing the injured party. He or she intends to obtain the monetary compensation for injuries incurred, as a result of a particular accident. Ideally, such compensation should allow the lawyer’s client (the injured party) to enjoy what the lawyer would view as a “whole” life.

In a court of law, all the losses claimed by the plaintiff’s attorney must be proved. Each of them needs to be proven in a designated fashion.

Proof of loss of earnings

During the assessment of this particular loss, the focus remains on the plaintiff’s gross salary. The money awarded for absence of income reflects two figures. One figure represents the plaintiff’s salary before the accident, and thus the wages lost as the injured person recovered from that same accidental occurrence. The other figure stands for the once expected wages, those that will now be denied during a future period.

Damages (losses) that reflect disappearance of consortium

The word consortium is a legal term. It refers to services, society and sexual relations. In proving the absence of one or more of those elements that make life enjoyable, the court must determine the value of the lost services.

Disappearance of incoming money

In order to prove this disappearance, the Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie for the accuser must consider those losses that started on the date of injury and ran until the date when the court issued a judgment. In legal terms, this amount is called the prejudgment interest.

Punitive damages

These are fines placed on the defendant. Each of them should reflect the enormity of the offense. Such damages are determined by the degree of the accused party’s reprehensibility, as displayed by that same person’s (the defendant’s) conduct. That stipulation keeps the damages from being more than required, in order to lower the chances that the defendant might repeat the improper conduct.

Losses caused by emotional distress

Proof of such a loss must fall into one of three categories. It could have been intentionally inflicted, negligently inflicted or the result of damage to some body part or possession of a bystander. When a plaintiff’s emotions have been damaged intentionally or negligently, the value of the emotional stress gets determined by a mental health expert, along with an analysis of the ensuing effects on the plaintiff’s health and earning capacity.
Assessment of the bystander’s emotions focuses on a search for signs of a verifiable and serious emotional disturbance. It is a disturbance that should have been caused by observation of a serious injury or death.

Economic loss

Charges made for economic losses normally concern actions that reflect negligence, especially on the part of a manufacturer. This category cannot be used, if a buyer felt damaged by a product that he or she could have returned for a refund.