Can I Receive Compensation for Losses Other Than Medical Bills and Missed Work?

If you’ve been hurt in an accident, you know how expensive life can become, between repair costs, doctor’s appointments, and missed work. In addition, certain forms of harm experienced by accident victims can be harder to see and measure, but are no less important or deserving of compensation. These are known as intangible or non-economic damages. Read on to learn about the forms of damages you may be able to recover via a personal injury lawsuit, and speak to a lawyer as soon as possible after you’re hurt to explore your legal options.

Basic Forms of Compensatory Damages

As a society, we’ve determined that it would be unfair to allow individuals or companies to get away with causing injury and resulting expense to individuals, and so we compel parties that are found responsible for injuries to pay for their mistakes in the form of money damages. This is the most obvious solution to compensate a victim for things like the costs to repair their car and other tangible, measurable expenses. These are known as “economic” damages. Other economic damages include lost wages for time spent off work, lost earning capacity if an accident had a permanent impact on your career trajectory, past and future medical expenses, costs and fees, and property damage.

There is no perfect way to make it up to someone who spent hours of their life in serious pain while waiting for medical help to arrive at the scene of an accident, or who will never play sports with their kids again, but money damages is the solution provided for in the American legal system. These less tangible damages are known as non-economic damages. Non-economic damages available to you will vary based on where you live, so speak with an attorney to determine what sorts of compensation you may be entitled to receive. If you’ve been severely injured in an accident, you may be eligible for compensation for the following forms of intangible damages:

*Pain and suffering: compensation for the hours, days, months or years you have or will spend in physical pain after an accident.

*Mental anguish: if your accident was highly traumatic, causing you to require professional psychological help to move on with your life, you may be entitled to damages for mental anguish.

*Permanent disfigurement: if your accident left you with permanent scars or a disfiguring injury, especially one to the face or arms, you can be compensated for the changes to your appearance.

If you’ve been injured in an accident in Alabama or Florida, seek out experienced and diligent personal injury attorneys who can make every effort to ensure you’re fully compensated for all your losses by contacting personal injury law firm Whibbs Stone Barnett Turner, PA, with convenient office locations in Pensacola, Mobile, and Ft. Walton Beach, at 1-888-219-4561.