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What are ‘damages’ in a personal injury lawsuit?

On Behalf of | Nov 8, 2022 | Personal Injury

In a typical personal injury lawsuit in Brooklyn, like a car accident case, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant was negligent in some way, causing the accident in question. So, for example, if the plaintiff alleges that the defendant was distracted in some way while driving, causing a car accident as a result, there must be proof that the driver was, for instance, using a cellphone or was otherwise not paying attention to the task of driving.

Proving negligence is hard enough, but there is another crucial element to personal injury cases that must also be proven: damages.

What are damages in a personal injury lawsuit? The term refers to the economic and noneconomic losses the plaintiff suffered as a result of the injury.

For purely economic is common to see costs for medical care, vehicle or property damage and even lost wages cited as damages in the typical personal injury case. If there are no damages, there is, for the most part, no case.

Damages are compensation

In essence, damages are why you are bringing the case in the first place. After all, why should you be responsible for an avalanche of unexpected costs when the accident that led to those costs wasn’t your fault?

In serious cases, injured victims could face weeks, months or even years of expensive medical treatment to attempt to recover their health. In some cases, full recovery isn’t even possible, so the damages may include an attempt to recover compensation for expected costs over the course of years for the help the injured victim might need just to try to live a normal life.

If you have been in an accident that might lead to civil litigation, getting the right legal information is crucial. And, evaluating what your full damages might be is a key part of any personal injury case.

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