Damages in Slip and Fall Cases in Virginia

The damages that someone may be able to recover if another party is liable for a slip and fall accident include special damages, which are all medical bills that are incurred. If your medical bills are the result of someone else’s negligence, Virginia law requires that the other party pay those medical bills. The other party is not responsible for a said amount beyond those medical bills.

There is also the larger category of general damages. Typically when someone retains an attorney, they can help the claims adjuster understand their client’s general damages. Those general damages include pain and suffering, loss of wages, and loss of employment.

In certain areas they also consider future lost earnings, future pain and suffering, and future medical damages. The damages are broken up into those two categories.

The special damages category is more quantitative because it includes a specific amount of money for medical bills and a certain amount of money for lost wages. Those are added up and those are the special damages. General damages are more special as they may require experts to get involved in the case and offer an expert opinion on what the general damages are. Oftentimes, experts in large cases are very useful in helping the court or the jury to understand how much to award.

Calculating Damages in Slip and Fall Case

The damages are really determined on a case by case basis. Every person’s case is unique other than the fact that the damages will include medical bills. The general damages are always going to be pain and suffering and more speculative things. They could be related to loss of earnings. If they were involved in activities they are now unable to do, that would be part of the general damages. If they have suffered the inability to perform certain activities that they otherwise participated in, that is considered part of general damages.

There is also a loss of certain professional opportunities, for example if they were a typist then loss of the ability to use one wrist would be considered loss of employment. That would be a very unique general damage. Also, if someone sustained a brain injury and, as a result, their mood changed, so if they used to be a happy-go-lucky person but then they became depressed, that could certainly be a general damage. All those things that are easily qualified but are more subjective and unique to an individual’s case are the general damages.

Suing For a Slip and Fall On Private Property?

If someone is injured on private property there are certain circumstances under which they may have the ability to seek legal recourse. For example, private homeowners may have homeowner’s insurance that covers injury on private property. In many cases of people falling on private property, depending on how they entered that private property and their right to be there, they very well may have the ability to bring a claim for slip and fall injuries.