Damages in a Virginia Personal Injury Case

Personal injury cases will have both economic and non-economic damages. If you have been injured due to another person’s negligence, it is important to retain the services of a Virginia personal injury attorney.

They will be able to determine the compensatory damages you can receive and argue for them in court. Additionally, they will be able to tell you what rights you have as the plaintiff and advise you on proper court proceedings.

Economic and Non-Economic Damages

Economic damages refer to loss of monetary resources either loss of wages, loss of earnings, loss of future earnings, or loss of ability to generate future income.

Non-economic damages are those damages that are not quantifiable within economic means. This typically includes damages such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium, or other similar damages that are not necessarily quantifiable.

Damage Caps

If someone has been injured because of someone else’s negligence, and as a result of their injury they have suffered economic loss, such as the ability to earn an income, either in the present or in the past or in the future, it is important that they seek economic damages with the help of an experienced Virginia personal injury attorney. While the judicial system cannot turn back the clock and make the injured person whole by undoing the damages as a result of the negligence of another, the availability of economic damages is one of the means that we have to compensate someone if they are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence or intentional acts.

Damage caps are the maximum amount of damages someone can recover for a specific claim. Virginia has few damage caps. Some of the most noteworthy are medical malpractice caps on providers and punitive damage caps. There also may be non-economic damages that have effective limits of coverage. This often arises in automobile accident case where the insured motorist and an uninsured motorist coverage reaches a certain amount and there is no additional coverage available beyond that.

Benefit of an Injury Attorney

If you are injured as a result of the negligence of another, you may be entitled to economic damages. Virginia Code specifically outlines what type of economic damages you may be entitled to, and how and what you must prove in order to be awarded these economic damages.

It is important in having a Virginia injury attorney to consider whether or not your case has economic damages. An experienced injury attorney in VA is able to tell you whether or not economic damages are an element of your case. When looking for an attorney to represent you, you should always ask whether that attorney has experience in achieving positive outcomes in economic damages cases.

Typically in order to successfully pursue a case for economic damages, a Virginia attorney will offer several types of different evidentiary information. It may include past tax information and pay stubs, or it may also include expert witness testimony from vocational experts talking about what type of employment the person had earned prior to the accident, what type of employment they are able to earn after the accident, as well as experts discussing the injured person’s career field, the natural progression or advancement in that field and how it may be stunted, the expected income levels in that field, and how the injuries suffered have affected the income levels both in the present and future values.

Damages in a Virginia Personal Injury Case