There are legal proceedings taken by individuals who suffered injuries or damages arising from negligence, breach of duty, or wrongdoing of other persons. The primary intent of these claims is to ensure that the injured person receives compensation for the losses and damages suffered.

Following an incident or injury, the consequences are usually felt in many dimensions far beyond the physical pain. It could lead to many financial burdens, emotional stresses, and significant alterations in the quality of life. The legal system recognizes these losses, and there is a mechanism for claiming compensation by which the principal loss is called ‘damages.’

The car accident lawyer in Houston tx says that the concept of damages in the case of personal injury claims is the sum of money awarded to the injured individual by the party that was ethically responsible for this injury or their insurance firm. These damages are meant to ensure that the injured person finds a way of recovering from the psychological and financial stress caused by the incident.

Economic Damages

Economic damages, or special damages in personal injury claims, are an important part of any injury claim. These are damages that aim to repair the injured party for some financial losses they suffered as a result of the accident. 

Damages for economic losses are obvious and measurable, and they can be calculated in a simple way.

The usual economic damages in personal injury cases are medical bills. If the injured person has lost his or her working time or temporary loss of income, that party can claim lost wages.

If the damage results in a permanent disability or causes substantial losses to the worker’s ability to earn his/her livelihood in the future, damages may be awarded for loss of earning capability. And even if an accident causes injury to the injured party’s property, for example, a car in case of a car collision, economic damages may compensate for the cost of repair.

Non-Economic Damages

General or non-economic damages include the compensation relating to the intangible and non-monetary losses multiplied on the victim’s part. In contrast to economic damages, whose value is defined quite clearly, non-economic damages have a subjective nature, and they may be more challenging to determine in dollars.

These damages due to pain and suffering are intended to reimburse the injured party for physical pain, discomfort, and mental anguish that he/she suffered as a result of his/her injury. These damages seek to award some form of compensation for the real pain sensation and the long-term consequences arising from injuries affecting one’s daily existence.

Emotional distress damages include the mental and emotional effects that accompany the injury, such as anxiety, depression, and trauma, among other adverse psychological effects of the injury. These compensations also note the mental pain the injured party sustained.

Thus, such injury restricts or disables the injured party to perform activities that he or she used to enjoy, and loss of life satisfaction may be compensated. Hobbies, social activities, and quality of life are among the things one can consider.

Punitive Damages

In personal injury claims, punitive damages or award amounts given to a person based on the compensation are called by another name, like exemplary damages or punishment damages, and these have a sole purpose. Unlike compensatory damages, whose goal is to reimburse the injured party for their loss, punitive damages have a different purpose of punishing the defendant for wrongdoing.

The principal objective of punitive awards is punitive; they are to punish the wrongdoer and perhaps discourage similar misconduct in the future. The contrasting viewpoint of compensatory damages is that they are designed to restore the injured person or entity to its pre-injury state, whereas punitive damages are meant to punish the at-fault party for its gross misconduct and send a message that such conduct would not be tolerated.

The higher the lack of respectability of the defendant’s actions, the higher the chances that punitive damages will be awarded. The more an individual conducts intentional harm or causes others a greater risk of severe injuries, the larger the punitive award he or she can attract.

The consideration of the financial resources of the defendant may be practiced as the court while imposing punitive damages on the convicted individual. This award should be sufficient but should be enough to impact the accused, bearing in mind that person’s capability to pay for this fine.

Conclusion

In the end, it must be remembered that there are different types of damage there. You need to understand them in order to know what steps need to be taken when such damages occur. 

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