Suing After A Brain Injury: What Damages Are Recoverable?
Posted on: 7 January 2016
It isn't uncommon for a brain injury to result in irreversible mental and physical damage. When you decide to pursue a lawsuit, a number will eventually be determined of what your injuries are worth. This is known as damages, which typically comes in two forms: compensatory and punitive. As a general rule, punitive damages are only awarded when the defendant needs to be directly punished as a result of their reckless actions. Compensatory damages are much more common, and is money that is awarded to the victim for the loss, harm and/or injury caused to them. How are these calculated and what specifically are they?
Calculating Your Potential Compensatory Damages
Because of the large number of factors that can play a role in determining your monetary award, it is almost impossible to tell you how to calculate your damages. However, one of the easier calculations is in reference to your lost wages. More than likely, your brain injury kept you off work for a certain period of time. You can usually be reimbursed for that by proving your wages. In addition, you may be able to recover monetary damages for future wages that you will lose due to the injury. With a brain injury, you will probably suffer long-term mental, physical as well as emotional effects, which can diminish or completely eliminate your earning capacity moving forward.
Other Forms of Monetary Damages
Lost wages and future lost wages are not the only damages that you can seek and potentially recover in a brain injury lawsuit. Other possible damages that you could recover include medical costs, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. In regards to medical expenses, this can include past and future costs for treatment. The same is true for physical and mental pain and suffering. The loss of enjoyment of life pertains to your future quality of life, which has been negatively affected due to the brain injury.
Contact a Lawyer (or Two or Three)
Keep in mind that every brain injury case is completely different from one another. For that reason, you will want to speak to a personal injury attorney about what legal options you may have and what the best maneuver is to move forward seeking recovery of damages. To find out more, schedule consultations with a few personal injury lawyers in your area to get an idea of how things might go down. By meeting with more than one attorney, you will be able to see how different attorneys work on cases and find one that you feel you will work best with and will garner you the most favorable outcome.
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