General Damages
General Damages are all non-out of pocket expenses and include the below:
Pain
You are entitled to receive money for the pain you have experienced and will experience in the future due to your California Personal Injury Accident.
Pain is rated as Severe, Moderate, Slight and Minimal. It is either constant or intermittent. Sometimes pain is rated from 0 to 10 with 0 being the lowest amount of pain, and 10 being the highest amount of pain.
Chronic pain is pain that will last for a long time or the rest of a person’s life. Chronic pain is usually the most important part of your damages.
It is difficult to place a monetary value on pain. Without the element of future pain your claim for damages relating to pain may have little value.
Suffering
You are entitled to receive money damages for the suffering you have experienced and will experience in the future as a result of your California Personal Injury Accident.
Changes in life style, depression, anxiety, neurosis and problems with relationships frequently result from accidents and injuries.
It is difficult to place a value on suffering. However, you should be compensated for your suffering.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
You are entitled to receive money damages for the loss of enjoyment of life that you have suffered as a result of your injuries related to your California personal injury accident.
Loss of enjoyment of life includes all of the things that you used to do before the accident, that you can no longer do, have a difficult time doing, or temporarily can no longer do, because of the accident.
Examples of loss of enjoyment of life are: hobbies, sporting activities, dancing, going to dinner or the movies, intimate relations with a spouse or significant other, spending quality time with children, spouses, friends, or significant other, etc. Loss of enjoyment of life includes all of the things in your life that you used to do, but cannot do, have a hard time doing, or have temporarily been unable to do. You should be compensated for loss of enjoyment of life.
Emotional Distress
All human beings can and do suffer from some sort of nervousness, anxiety, depression, sleepless nights, post-traumatic stress, flashbacks, or a combination thereof after suffering from a personal injury accident.
Even the toughest of individuals have some sort of emotional distress related to their injury accident.
You are entitled to compensation for emotional distress even if you do not need to see a psychiatrist or psychologist.
Special Damages
Special Damages are all out of losses that you have sustained as a result of your California Personal Injury Accident.
Loss of Income
You are entitled to receive money damages for any loss of income you suffer as a result of the accident.
If you will lose income in the future the amount of the loss will be calculated.
However, future income losses must be reasonably certain to occur.
Loss of earning capacity is either your temporary inability to work or a permanent disability restricting your ability to be competitive in the job market.
A reasonable value for the loss of earning capacity should be paid by the defense.
Expenses
Expenses include property damage, loss of use of a vehicle medical bills, prescriptions, travel to and from the doctor, or any item of expense related to your California Personal Injury case.
You should receive money damages for all reasonable and necessary expenses for which you paid, or became obligated to pay, as a result of the accident.
The defense is obligated to pay for both past and future expenses. However, as in Loss of Income, the future loss must be reasonably certain to occur.
In California you are compensated for the repair cost of your vehicle up to the FAIR MARKET VALUE of your vehicle. If the repair amount exceeds the fair market value, you will only be entitled to the fair market value of your vehicle.
Fair market value of a vehicle is not the “blue book” value of a vehicle, it is the street value of the vehicle. For instance if you go on the internet and search for a similar year, make, and model car, in similar condition, the average price in your area for that vehicle is what the fair market value of the vehicle is.
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