Personal Injury Law: What are Compensatory Damages?
As we've explained in earlier articles, there are many kinds of damages available to you as you file your personal injury claim. Some of those damages might be more intuitive. You have real tangible financial losses as a result of someone else's negligence. And the state of Texas provides the opportunity for you to recover these losses.
Defining Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages is the blanket term for the damages that allow you to recover your economic losses. These are specific costs that include things like:
- past and future medical expenses
- property damages
- loss of future income
- loss of earning capacity
- court costs
- request domestic services (like nurses or help doing household chores you can no longer perform yourself).
These damages are in place to help restore to you the monies you've lost as a result of your accident. These are specific and dollar-for-dollar, if you will. Personal injury claims don't exist to make you richer, but to try to restore you to the same place you were prior to your accident.
How to prove up these damages
As you would guess, some of these damages are fairly easy to calculate. Your medical bills or how much you're paying for prescriptions are amounts readily available to you and easy to document. Depending on your needs, things like domestic assistance could be more difficult to prove to the jury.
Not only that, this is a one-shot thing. An experienced attorney will know how best to go about getting the most accurate number together for your future needs. With the assistance of things like professional witnesses that can testify to the depth of your medical needs, how much it costs for proper assistance around the house, how long you'll need rehabilitation, etc. we can put together the most complete picture for the jury.
That's what the jury needs. They need your story, what's changed for you since your accident, and what it will take to get things back as-close-to-normal as possible for you. And that's what we have over 25 years of experience doing at Grossman Law Offices. We know what kinds of evidence you'll need, the documentation necessary to put you in the most successful position possible.
Why you should call us
Michael Grossman has the experience to handle your claim almost better than anyone. We won thousands of cases, and we're here to help our clients. We care about their wellbeing and we make ourselves available around the clock. If you have questions about your claim, if we didn't answer your questions, give us a call. We have experienced attorneys available to speak with you 24/7. Feel free to give us a call anytime at (855) 326-0000.
