Economic Damages

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If you were injured in a car accident, animal attack, or other personal injury in Washington, you might be wondering how you will pay your accident-related costs. These expenses might include your medical bills, lost wages, and property damage.

You may be entitled to compensation for the harm you suffered by filing a personal injury lawsuit, which is collectively referred to as your damages.

What Are Damages In Personal Injury Cases?

Damages refer to the losses that you suffer in your case. These can be tangible losses, such as lost income from missed work, or intangible losses, like pain and suffering. Damages are a crucial element in personal injury cases.

Courts cannot go back in time and prevent the injury from ever happening. Personal injury law is not concerned with criminal punishment. Instead, personal injury law aims to return the victim to the position they would have been in had the accident never occurred. This is primarily accomplished by awarding financial damages to the victim.

Types of Damages In Washington

There are several different types of damages that can be awarded in a Washington personal injury case, including:

Economic Damages

Economic damages are objectively verifiable and include monetary losses, such as:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages and income
• Burial costs and funeral expenses (in wrongful death cases)
• Loss of use of property
• Costs to repair or replace property
• Replacement services, such as cleaning and childcare
• Loss of employment

Accident victims can recover compensation for future losses of economic damages.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are non-monetary losses you suffer because of the accident, such as:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Mental anguish
• Permanent disability
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Like with economic damages, accident victims can recover compensation for present and future non-economic damages.

Punitive Damages

Economic and non-economic damages are meant to compensate the victim. Punitive damages are not. They are meant to punish the wrongdoer.

Calculating Economic Damages

Economic damages are supposed to be objectively verifiable and can often be proven with the following evidence:

• Medical bills
• Repair costs or estimates
• Invoices for services paid
• Replacement cost of your damaged vehicle
• Rental car bills and rideshare receipts
• Employment statements or check stubs that show your lost wages

Some economic damages, such as your long-term losses in earning capacity, may be more difficult to estimate. These may require hiring an economic expert who can calculate the value of your projected earning capacity post-accident had the accident not occurred.

An economic expert may evaluate the following factors to calculate your projected earning capacity:

• Age and health
• Occupation
• Education and training
• Job skills
• History of promotions and raises

Washington’s jury instructions tell jurors that they must convert any award for future economic damages into present cash value. Present cash value is the amount of money that would equal the amount of the financial loss at the time in the future if invested and benefiting from a reasonable rate of return.

There is no cap on economic damages in personal injury cases in Washington. The jury is free to award any amount they feel is reasonable under the circumstances and backed by objective evidence.

How Much Is Your Case Worth?

When evaluating the value of your personal injury claim, courts and insurance companies consider various factors, such as:

• The nature and severity of your injuries
• The costs of your initial medical treatment
• Your rehabilitation costs
• The anticipated costs of your future medical care
• How much time you missed from work
• Whether any of your injuries were permanent in nature
• Costs to repair or replace your damaged property
• The amount of insurance available for your case
• How the accident and your injuries will affect your life
• Whether you contributed to the accident

Because the potential value of your claim can depend on many factors specific to your case, you can get a better idea about this matter by working with an experienced Seattle personal injury attorney.

Additional Elements You Must Prove In a Personal Injury Case

You cannot recover compensation if you cannot show you were harmed by the accident. Other elements you must also be able to prove to establish your right to recover in a personal injury case include:

Duty

First, you must be able to show that the defendant owed you a duty of care. This is usually a matter of law, such as all motorists having a duty to follow traffic laws and drive safely.

Breach of Duty

Next, you must be able to show that the defendant did something that violated their duty of care. For example, a motorist may have run a red light or sped.

Causation

You must then be able to show that the defendant’s breach of duty actually caused the accident. For example, the accident would not have occurred had the motorist not sped or ran the red light.

Contact an Experienced Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer for Help With Economic Damages

Economic damages are a crucial component of the compensation you deserve after being injured in an accident. To learn more about the economic damages you might be entitled to and how to calculate them, contact our experienced car accident Attorneys in Seattle from Davis Law Group Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers today.