If you were hurt in a car accident or other type of accident in Chicago due to someone else’s negligence, you could be entitled to monetary compensation for your losses. Financial compensation in a personal injury claim is known as damages. Damages in personal injury claims typically consist of two types: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages have a monetary value that can be added up in dollar figures. Examples include medical bills, property repairs, and travel expenses. Non-economic damages aren’t as easily translated to dollar figures but are just as important as economic damages. Non-economic damages can easily surpass the amount of economic damages in a personal injury case.
Seasoned Chicago personal injury lawyers have experience collecting non-economic damages for personal injury clients in Illinois. Understanding how non-economic damages can apply in your case is also helpful.
What Are Non-Economic Damages?
Non-economic damages exist to fairly address your intangible losses that are difficult to place precise values on. While economic damages can be viewed through medical bills, paystubs, receipts, invoices, and other documentation, non-economic damages require a deeper analysis. Non-economic damages include emotional distress, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. This type of compensation seeks to address the trauma and unseen losses that stem from your devastating accident.
If you’ve been hurt in any type of accident, your Chicago personal injury lawyer will carefully analyze your accident and the suffering you’ve experienced as a result. A skilled attorney will seek out the maximum value for your non-economic damages you’ve experienced and will continue to experience.
Non-economic damages contain different categories that can all be included as part of an Illinois personal injury claim. The types and amounts of damages can vary depending on the nature of the accident and injuries you suffered. Common types of non-economic damages include:
Pain and Suffering
Serious accidents often lead to pain and suffering for accident victims. What is pain and suffering in a personal injury case? This refers to the physical and emotional pain that can follow after you’ve been hurt. In addition to obvious physical pain, you might also suffer from shock, cognitive issues, depression, fatigue, trouble sleeping, and other lingering effects of an accident.
When a lawyer seeks damages for “pain and suffering” on your behalf, these are the problems they seek to address.
Emotional Distress
Similar to pain and suffering, emotional distress in a personal injury case is a category factoring your emotional trauma. Going through the accident itself, then the pain and uncertainty that follows can cause significant emotional distress. An accident victim will frequently wonder how or when they’ll get their life back and recover from injuries.
In some cases, they experience the hardship of knowing they will never fully recover to their pre-accident condition. The mental anguish involved can be compensated as non-economic damages.
Disability, Disfigurement, and Scarring
Injuries from an accident can include disfigurement and scarring to your face and other parts of your body. When disfigurement, scarring, or loss of a body part impacts your mental well-being, these effects can be taken into account as non-economic damages. The same can apply to permanent disabilities you might encounter due to an accident caused by someone else’s wrongdoing. A personal injury lawyer can help make sure you get what you deserve for this form of non-economic damages.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
While economic damages can address lost work opportunities and loss of future earning capacity, non-economic damages can address your overall loss of enjoyment of life due to an accident. If you had certain hobbies, exercises, sports, or other activities you enjoyed but can no longer do – you deserve compensation for those losses. Even basic activities such as cooking and cleaning can be impacted by an accident and reduce your enjoyment of life.
Loss of Consortium
When someone suffers an accident with long term impacts, their spouse can seek compensation for loss of consortium. This refers to losses of love, companionship, romance, affection, and advice when one spouse suffers a devastating injury. Courts will assign monetary values to these non-economic damages in a personal injury case.
How Do I Prove Non-Economic Damages In Illinois?
Often, both the plaintiff and defendant in a personal injury lawsuit can agree that the accident victim suffered economic damages due to the event. Proving non-economic damages and assigning values can be a different story. Calculating non-economic damages can be the most hotly contested portion of a personal injury claim.
The claimant will need to prove not only that the other party was negligent, but that the accident caused the damages claimed by a personal injury plaintiff.
Two methods of calculating non-economic damages are usually used:
- The Per Diem Method. Here, a daily monetary value can be assigned for pain, suffering, and other intangible damages. This value would be multiplied by the number of days estimated that a victim would experience the hardships in question.
- The Multiplier Method. In this scenario, parties will agree to a number (usually between one and five) to multiply economic damages by. For example, if economic damages are $50,000, and a multiplier of 3 is used, non-economic damages would be set at $150,000.
When seeking non-economic damages in a personal injury case, it is critical to retain a lawyer with significant experience in this area. A knowledgeable personal injury attorney will know how to accurately evaluate your non-economic damages.
A Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Seek Non-Economic Damages
If you were injured in a collision, slip and fall, or other type of accident, your pain and suffering might not end with the accident itself. You might experience devastating emotional pain and trauma – sometimes permanent – due to the accident. A dedicated team of Chicago personal injury lawyers at Powell and Pisman Injury Lawyers can help you seek the non-economic damages you deserve. Contact our law firm at (312) 635-5400.