If someone is seriously hurt by a malfunctioning or defective product, they may choose to sue that product's manufacturer. If the victim's attorney successfully proves to a jury that the manufacturer is at fault, the jury may then award the victim damages related to the injury. But what specific kinds of damages might be awarded in a product liability lawsuit?

Answer: Texas courts acknowledge 10 types of compensatory and punitive damages in personal injury lawsuits, including those deriving from product liability claims.

In this article we'll more closely examine the types of damages an injured victim is able to pursue in a product liability case, as well as how those damages might be calculated.

Compensatory Damages

Compensatory damages are a primary type of monetary award in a lawsuit, intended to compensate the costs incurred as a result of the injury. In other words, your life was a certain way before the accident and these damages account for the cost of getting things back to how they were.

Compensatory damages typically fall within two categories: Economic and non-economic damages. Each of those categories also has its own distinct types.

Economic Damages

Economic damages can be priced in a marketplace; for instance, medical bills come straight from a doctor or hospital with a clear price tag attached. On the other hand, no business can put a price on not being able to wear short sleeves because of severe burns (non-economic damages). Let's look more closely at the different categories of economic damages.

Medical Expenses: Past and Future

Obviously, if a person is injured badly enough to file a lawsuit, then it's almost certain they'll have some large medical bills. If your attorney can prove in court that the manufacturer of a defective product caused your injuries, then they may be responsible for covering the costs of your recovery.

The two types of medical expenses that can be recovered in a Texas product defect lawsuit are:

• Past Medical Expenses - Past medical expenses can generally be determined by tallying up doctor and hospital bills the patient accrued during treatment. What a jury might award in these damages would probably be based on the expenses listed in the victim's medical invoices.
  
• Future Medical Expenses - Many treatments for traumatic or chronic injuries may be lengthy and costly, and if they continue beyond the duration of the lawsuit then a jury may award some damages for ongoing care. These damages are by their nature more speculative, since you're seeking money for something that hasn't happened yet.

Loss of Earning Capacity: Past and Future

One of the consequences of a severe injury is the inability to work. Loss of earning capacity, in which the victim's injury prevented them from working and making their livelihood, is another category of damages often awarded by a jury in a product liability case.

• Loss of Past Earning Capacity - This is a fancier term for lost wages, meaning the money someone would have earned during the time their injury made them unable to work. The calculation for this fairly simple: Take your hourly wage before the accident, calculate the time you missed from work, and multiply the two together.
  
• Loss of Future Earning Capacity - Sometimes an accident victim's injuries are so severe that they can't return to their job—or any job. In those cases the wages they would have earned may be taken into account for compensation.
  
  Like future medical expenses, future earning capacity is speculative in that you must guess how things will happen. Experts hired by your attorney may consider factors like age, education, work history, career path, and current market conditions, and use those variables to estimate the difference between what an injured person would have earned without the injury and what they might earn with their limitations. It's important that this be done in a way that is clear to a jury of regular people, so the right expert is crucial.

Loss of Household Services

A household is usually a busy environment, where chores and labor are divided to ensure everything gets done. Cleaning, shopping, cooking, laundry, repairs, painting, and many other tasks all need regular attention—and often money. If the injured victim contributed to that one way or another, then their inability to continue doing so can burden their family.

Calculating the financial hit from those damages involves determining the market value of the tasks the victim can no longer perform. Basically, an attorney gives the jury a look at the victim's general lifestyle, the specific tasks they can no longer do, and local market rates for similar services, then shows them how much it would cost to hire someone to take over those duties.

Non-Economic Damages

As mentioned, some types of damages don't have an obvious bill to refer to when assessing cost. These non-economic damages relate to the less-tangible consequences of an accident, such as suffering and emotional distress. That doesn't necessarily mean they get less weight or consideration, only that their monetary value may be less clear. Let's look at some types of non-economic damages.

Loss of Consortium

The law understands that some relationships—particularly family ones, like spousal or parent/child bonds—are incomparable and irreplaceable. When a serious accident damages the victim's ability to participate in those relationships, that's called loss of consortium. Spouses may miss romantic time together, for example, while a child can no longer play with their parent.

There's no set formula to calculate this type of damage, but some factors that an attorney may call attention to are:

• Severity of the injury: The extent and permanence of the injury or disability caused by the accident. 
• Nature of the relationship: The quality of the relationship between the victim and the other person before the injury.
• Impact on lifestyle: How the injury has changed the family's time together. 
• Testimonies and expert opinions: Statements from family members, friends, and experts regarding the impact of the injury on the relationship. 

Physical Impairment

Consider an avid outdoorsman who loved to hunt, but was seriously hurt in an accident caused by a malfunctioning ATV. His injuries prevent him from hunting or being active outdoors anymore, which negatively impacts the quality of his remaining life. That's the kind of damage that physical impairment covers in a lawsuit—the limitation or even the end of the lifestyle you enjoyed before being hurt.

To prove this kind of damage, an experienced attorney will hire a medical expert who can assess the severity of the injury based on factors like the affected body part, its functional limitations, and its impact on daily activities.

Physical Disfigurement

Humans are by and large social creatures, and disfigurements caused by serious injuries—scars, burns, amputated limbs—can take a terrible toll if the victim feels unable to continue their social and public life the same way they did before.

Much like loss of consortium and other non-economic damages, this has no set formula for calculation. An attorney might demonstrate to a jury the severity of the disfigurement and its daily impact on the victim's quality of life, among other factors.

Mental Anguish

We've met with many people who were under the mistaken belief that mental anguish was an invented term to heighten TV dramas, while others believed it was little more than "hurt feelings." Both are entirely false. Not every injury is physical, and people may suffer anxiety, stress, depression, and other serious mental disorders after a traumatic event like a serious accident.

So how is mental anguish calculated for damages? It may vary. An attorney might show a jury the severity of the victim's emotional distress and explain how much it disrupted their daily life. Evidence like medical records, witness testimony, and the victim's own description of their emotional state are crucial to proving the extent of the issue.

Exemplary (Punitive) Damages

Punitive damages are awarded in lawsuits to punish the defendant for particularly reckless or intentional misconduct, called gross negligence. Unlike compensatory damages, which aim to reimburse the plaintiff for actual losses, punitive damages are not tied to the plaintiff’s specific harm but are instead designed to deter similar behavior in the future.

These damages are typically awarded in cases where the defendant's actions showed fraud, malice, or a willful disregard for the safety or rights of others. The amount is often determined by the severity of the harm caused and the defendant's financial status, though some limitations or caps may apply based on the venue.

Punitive damages don't branch into sub-categories like compensatory damages do. Either an attorney shows compelling evidence to the jury that the defendant acted with an egregious lack of care, or no punitive damages are awarded.

Grossman Law Can Help

The list of damages above are the ones generally accepted by Texas courts in a personal injury case. Keep in mind that not every category will apply to every case—not every accident results in a disfigurement, for example. Whichever damages an accident victim seeks, though, they can count on defense attorneys to dispute any claim that they're owed even a single dime for their troubles. Most large manufacturers have plenty of strategies and—depending on the company—a lot of practice defending themselves against allegations of wrongdoing, and they have no incentive to pull their punches.

That's where an experienced product liability and personal injury attorney can be invaluable. The Texas attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have helped many people hurt by defective or malfunctioning products, from appliances to vehicles and everything in between. If you were injured or lost a loved one in an accident caused by a defective product, contact Grossman Law Offices any time for a free and confidential consultation.