Recovering Damages in DC Truck Accidents
The damages available to an injured person in a truck accident in DC are unique and specific to the individual claim. Generally, a person is entitled to recover both economic and noneconomic damages. The way these truck accident case damages are calculated or how they are presented to the jury depends on the specific injuries incurred by that particular plaintiff. A DC truck accident lawyer can help maximize the recovery of your damages.
For example, if some injured persons have significant economic damages, but have had a good physical recovery and few lingering effects, they may have limited noneconomic damages. However, other parties may have little economic damages with significant noneconomic damages.
For example, in some death cases, a person has lost his or her life, but there may be little or comparatively little economic damages to present to a jury. However, the noneconomic damages in a case such as that can be significant.
Recovering Compensation
An injured person should expect to receive compensation for both economic and noneconomic damages. The manner in which that evidence is presented to a jury is unique to that individual case. Likewise, the jury is able to receive evidence that is proven by the court rules.
However, the jury can either agree or disagree with all of the evidence that is presented. Simply because the evidence is admitted, particularly certain economic bills, does not mean that a jury must return a verdict for the economic damages. The jury is entitled to do whatever it determines is appropriate for damages in any individual truck accident case in DC.
Non-Economic Damages
The judge or jury calculates noneconomic damages for the truck accident. The noneconomic damages are presented to the judge or jury through evidence and it is entirely up to the judge or jury hearing the case to award all, none, or some of the noneconomic damages requested by the plaintiff.
Damage Cap
Generally, there is not a cap on noneconomic damages in the District of Columbia. In that case, there can be a de facto cap by limiting certain types of noneconomic damages to surviving family members. However, this is a unique situation that can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Role of an Attorney
An attorney serves an invaluable benefit to an injured person in calculating damages by making the plaintiff aware of the type of noneconomic damages that he or she is entitled to recover in any particular case. A qualified and trained truck accident attorney in DC will be able to draw out specific facts, information, and evidence from the injured person and his or her close family members or friends who can provide the jury with additional information for its consideration in awarding noneconomic damages.
Noneconomic damages are unique to the individual involved in a motor vehicle collision. For example, a young person may have very different economic damages than a parent who is the main source of economic funding for a family. Likewise, the noneconomic damages for a person who is older or of retirement age are different from the other two examples provided.
The attorney works with his or her client to ensure that all of the pertinent information and evidence is secured so that he or she can present all of the information and evidence to a jury for its consideration in calculating and recovering damages from a truck accident.