What Do Compensatory Damages Include?
Compensatory damages are funds awarded to a plaintiff to cover the cost of damages, injuries, and other types of loss after an accident. These damages are awarded in a civil court when a loss occurs due to someone else's illegal conduct or negligence. To obtain these damages, the plaintiffs have to provide sufficient evidence that a loss occurred and that the defendant is to blame. The plaintiff also has to quantify the amount of their loss in front of a judge and jury.
If you have a personal injury case, you can get compensation with a personal injury lawyer. Your lawyer will review all the details of your case and inform you of any evidence you need to submit in court. Once you can prove that you've received medical care, missed work, or had to replace or repair your vehicle, your attorney will help walk you through the process of getting the settlement you're entitled to.
Understanding Compensatory Damages
Actual damages provide the finances necessary to replace what was lost in the accident. Most of the time, compensatory damages are given to the plaintiff in a civil court case to cover the cost of damages, injury, and loss. However, compensatory damages differ from punitive damages and treble damages.
Examples of compensatory damages can include medical treatments, hospital, and medical bills, expenses for riding in an ambulance, domestic services, physical therapy, nursing home care, prescription drugs, and medical equipment. Compensatory damages can also include loss of a job or lost wages due to the accident. To receive compensatory damages, the plaintiff must prove that the losses they suffered in the accident can be defined as a monetary value.
General Compensatory Damages
General compensatory damages include estimates that don't involve monetary amounts. For example, some courts utilise the "multiplier method," which determines damages by multiplying the total of the damages by a number that indicates the severity of the injury. Other courts often use the "per diem" method which assigns a monetary amount to every day the plaintiff suffers and adds the total value of these days together. The courts may also use a combination of these two methods to award fair compensatory damages. General compensatory damages can include future lost wages, loss of consortium, disfigurement, mental anguish, and long-term pain and suffering.
Compensatory damages are usually awarded in medical malpractice cases, often for hospital/medical bills, lost earnings, and rehabilitation. However, it can be challenging to assess some compensatory damages. For instance, the value for lost wages will be higher for someone who had a high-paying job before the accident than for someone retired. Therefore, victims need lawyers to estimate and calculate their claims' worth by factoring in future lost wages, altered career plans, inflation even, and more.
Compensatory Damages And Punitive Damages
Compensatory damages are different from punitive damages, which can compensate more than any damage or loss incurred. Punitive damages are meant to provide an incentive to keep defendants from repeating the act that led to the damages or loss.
Cases on compensatory and punitive damages are a huge source of debate regarding health insurance since parts of a tort reform claim that additional damages above the loss incurred can increase healthcare costs. Compensatory damages are designed to compensate the victim with adequate funds to cover the damages caused by the defendant.
Compensatory Damages And Treble Damages
Treble damages are a type of punitive damage. It is meant to discourage others from committing the same type of crime again. In many cases, treble damages can include instructions to award a plaintiff as much as three times the actual damages. These damages come into effect when the plaintiff intentionally or willfully violates a law.
To receive compensatory damages in a personal injury case, the plaintiff must prove that actual loss occurred. These damages are designed to compensate for all types of damages, whether mental, physical, or emotional. However, compensatory damages are not the same as treble or punitive damages.
