If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence, it’s likely that you’re
Calculating a reasonable estimate for personal injury damages is complex, so the best thing to do if you’ve been injured and believe you have a case is to consult a qualified attorney. Our calculator takes some of the most important factors into consideration, but won’t necessarily be 100% accurate.
Economic damages, also referred to as special damages, are monetary losses and expenses. Following an auto accident, a way you can calculate your damages is to weigh your.
Your medical expenses are comprised of all treatment and diagnostic fees you accrue following your accident. This can include, but is not limited to, ambulance service, hospital bills, diagnostic charges, surgery expenses, prescription medicines, and physical therapy.
The amount of income you would have been due had you been able to work to your full potential without injury.
Costs associated with hiring someone to perform duties you are unable to perform in the home, such as cooking, cleaning, or taking care of children or pets. This is considered a special damage.
This includes the income you would have earned during your recovery from injuries and any potential loss of future earnings. A jury considers factors such as your age, skill, profession, and life expectancy to determine the total amount.
During trial, a medical expert is called to testify on your behalf if you're expected to receive medical care in the future.
Non-Economic damages, or general damages, can best be described as damages that don’t come attached to a price tag. Emotional trauma, stress, and a loss of enjoyment in life can accompany an accident or injury; equating a monetary value to these losses is difficult, and there is no standard equation.
General damages attempt to compensate an individual for the pain they have experienced, outside of the financial losses incurred by medical expenses, lost wages, and other costs. Examples of Non-Economic damages include, but are not limited to:
Unlike economic damages, non-economic damages cannot be calculated using bills to create a sum total. Therefore, there are a number of approaches that insurance companies take when quantifying pain and suffering, emotional anguish, and other general damages as part of an injury settlement. The two most common methods are the “per diem” (daily rate) method, and the multiplier method.
The first approach to calculating non-economic damages is called the “per diem” method, which is Latin for “per day.” The idea here is to demand a specific dollar amount for each day you had to live with the trauma caused by your accident.
Identifying an amount that can be justified in court and by the insurance company can be tricky. For this reason, many people use their actual daily earnings to formulate a reasonable daily rate. The belief is that having to deal with the trauma caused by your injuries every day is at least comparable to the effort of going to work each day.
For example, if you’re earning $45,000 per year at your current or most recent job, you would divide your salary by the 250 working days per year. That amounts to $180 per day. If you suffered emotional trauma for a total of five months, or roughly 150 days, you would multiply 150 by your daily rate of $180 and arrive at $27,000. This would be your non-economic damage total.
True to its name, the multiplier method adds up all of your special (economic) damages and multiplies that amount by a number between 1.5 on the low end, and 4 or 5 on the high end. The multiplier will depend on a number of variables related to your case, including:
Typically, the worse the general damages were for the victim to endure, the higher the multiplier number will be, which results in a higher overall payout. The multiplier method is most frequently used by insurance companies. As opposed to needing to settle on a daily rate, you and the defendant, or more specifically their insurer, will negotiate the most appropriate multiplier.
To find your total compensation paid, simply multiply your special damages by the multiplier you feel is fair according to the above list of variables. For instance, if your special damages amounted to $12,000 and you believe your multiplier to be 2.5, your total compensation paid would be $30,000.
“Negligence” refers to a failure to use reasonable care to prevent harm to others. A person is considered negligent if he or she acts differently than a reasonable person in the same situation would, whether by failing to act with a duty of care, or otherwise deviating from the accepted standard of behavior.
Take this scenario as an example: If you’re enjoying a day of boating and a captain on a passing boat is trying to put on sunscreen while manning the boat, and he collides into your boat, he was acting in a negligent manner. The at-fault individual, the captain of the opposite boat, was expected to remain attentive while manning his boat. By focusing on other activities, he acted in way in which a careful boater would not. A reasonably careful individual would have kept his eyes on the water ahead, assuring the safety of his passengers and boaters sharing the water.
If you have suffered an injury or need experienced criminal defense, contact Weinstein Legal Team today or use the form below to start your case file.
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