What You Need To Know About Compensatory And Punitive Damages
If you are thinking about filing a personal injury lawsuit you might be wondering how much you could get out of the lawsuit. There are certain things you need to know about the damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Here is some helpful information about the difference between compensatory damages and punitive damages.
What Are Compensatory Damages?
Compensatory damages are the most common damages that are awarded in a personal injury lawsuit. These are damages that are directly related to the accident. These are damages that can usually be proven and compensate the person for their losses from the accident.
Some of the most common reasons for compensatory damages are things like lost wages, medical expenses, damaged property and so forth. Even involved in compensatory damages are things like pain and suffering. It is harder to put a number on this, but the court is generally able to decide a number at which you should be compensated for the pain and suffering that you felt.
In order to get compensatory damages you need to have proof of all of the injuries. You need to have medical bills, W-2 forms, and appraisals of your property. You can also have doctor notes stating the loss of quality of life. For instance, if you had to have a foot amputated because of the accident, you could have the medical bills covered, as well as compensation for the loss of quality of life now that you are without an important part of your body.
Compensatory damages are the most common type of damages that are awarded in a personal injury lawsuit.
What Are Punitive Damages?
Punitive damages are awarded on top of any compensatory awards in rare cases that the guilty party did something especially terrible. For instance, if there is a large company that did something horrible and was negligent and reckless, then the court may award punitive damages mostly to hurt the company that was guilty.
In cases where the accident was sincerely an accident you wouldn't see punitive damages. Instead, the punitive damages are there to hurt the guilty party so that this kind of behavior never happens again. Punitive damages can be very large, although in most situations there is a cap of how much you can sue for in punitive damages.
By understanding the types of damages you can sue for you can understand how much money you are going to get out of your suit. Contact a personal injury lawyer like Jon D. Caminez, PA for more information.
