What Kinds of Losses Could Be Linked To Personal Injury Case?

The legal system has placed the claimed losses in the category of compensatory damages. Still, those are not the only possible damages.

Two types of compensatory damages

General: non-economic; concerns harm to the victim’s mind or emotions

Special: unique to each victim, because it relates to the victim’s medical expenses and loss of money, usually income. There is no limit to the number of special damages for any one personal injury case.

The legal system expects the person responsible for the damages to compensate the victim, so that he or she can become whole again.

Seek wrongful death damages

A family might have to deal with a personal injury, while also facing the consequences of a wrongful death. That could be the case if the driver of a hit vehicle had been killed by that same collision, but the occupant had survived, despite having sustained a severe injury. Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie is certain that surviving family members would have the right to seek wrongful death damages, in addition to the compensatory damages.

-Funeral expenses
-Burial expenses
-Medical costs, prior to the untimely death
-Emotional distress; grief
-Possible loss of financial resources
-Loss of consortium/companionship

Another kind of damage, one not linked to any losses

That is the damage done to the defendant that must pay punitive damages. That could be added to the reward that had been granted by the court. Normally, defendants that must satisfy the court’s demand for punitive damages have behaved in an egregious or reprehensible manner.

Unlike the special and general damages, the punitive ones do not help the plaintiff to become whole again. Instead, that punishing requirement is meant to keep the defendant from repeating the unwarranted behavior at some other time.

Why a plaintiff might not welcome the court’s desire to hit the defendant with an additional financial punishment?

Any money that a plaintiff might receive, in addition to the compensatory funds, could be taxed. A plaintiff’s desire to avoid paying added taxes might trigger a move by the plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer in Barrie. That move could result in a meeting between the judge and the plaintiff’s lawyer.

The lawyer might suggest the substitution of an additional special damage for one of the punitive ones. As indicated above, there is no limit to the number of specials that could get linked to any one personal injury case. If the judge agreed to go along with the lawyer’s suggestion, the defendant’s financial burden would not get altered. Instead, that burden would be comprised of more compensatory and fewer punishing, monetary demands.

Consequently, the lawyer’s client would not have to pay the government a large amount of tax money. After all, the injured client/plaintiff had not been under any obligation to pay the government.