The legal system recognizes the disruptive nature of a personal injury. For that reason, it has attempted to provide injured victims with a means for becoming “whole” again. As designed by legal experts, the awarding of damages should furnish victims with a means for achieving the goal of wholeness.
From among several that must be compensated, a specific damage relates to medical expenses
A doctor sends a bill for each visit. The hospital sends a bill, if the victim’s recovery had to begin in a hospital. In addition, there could be a bill from a nursing home or a physical therapist. Payment for medical damages serves as compensation for all of those expenses.
Another compensation concerns the victim’s lost wages
When someone else’s negligence keeps an adult from taking care of his or her job responsibilities, the injured worker gets robbed of an anticipated salary. The legal system acknowledges the veracity of that statement. Hence, it has designed a means by which a victim can get reimbursed for lost wages.
Like the payment for medical expenses, the reimbursement for lost wages gets categorized as an economic damage. Yet victims also have to deal with non-economic damages. Hence a fair compensation needs to include coverage of such non-economic damages.
Examples of non-economic damages
Pain and suffering: The added challenges that the victim must face, while attempting to carry out normal daily activities. Someone that has been severely injured could face numerous challenges. For such a person, even eating a meal could prove difficult.
Emotional distress: This needs to be proven by psychiatric records. Some states put a cap on the amount of money that can be awarded for damages such as emotional distress or pain and suffering.
Additional damages when claim of personal injury includes a claim of wrongful death
Compensation for loss of consortium might be added to the other compensations. Normally the victim that suffers loss of consortium is the family member. The spouse or dependent family member can file for the claim with the assistance of an injury lawyer in Richmond Hill. In some cases, the person that seeks an award can receive punitive damages. That means that the negligent party must pay money to the person that got injured. The court does not demand payment or such money unless the evidence presented indicates that the defendant’s careless and neglectful actions contributed markedly to creation of the victim’s injuries.
The link between the injury and the defendant’s negligence does not have to be proven beyond any doubt. The jury just needs to find that a majority of the evidence supports the existence of such a link. If a jury decides that the evidence furnishes a sufficient level of support, then the victim gets awarded the punitive damages.