Personal injury cases work their way though the court system so often that some lawyers handle this type of law exclusively. They can often make a good living by representing defendants or plaintiffs. If they’re representing the injured party, they can collect as much as 40% of the settlement money the defendant offers or that the jury awards the plaintiff in some instances.
There are several factors that impact personal injury cases, and they are worth talking about. If you are going to sue someone, then you should know about them going in, since they might determine how much money you will get, if any.
Can You Collect Punitive Damages?
The process to potentially collect punitive damages varies depending on several factors, but you should know about the basics behind this concept. In essence, the term means damages that a plaintiff may collect in a personal injury case if the court system decides that it will punish the defendant for any actions or inactions that caused your illness or injury.
Let us say that you bring a personal injury lawsuit against a homeowner who had a pit bull that they allowed to run around loose in the neighborhood. The dog mauled you.
After the police put down the animal, you sued the owner. During the trial, the jury and judge hear that the dog’s owner knew about its tendencies, but they didn’t care. They still let the dog run around loose, despite it showing aggression toward other people or biting them in the past.
In that instance, you’re not only liable to win your lawsuit. You may also get some additional money in punitive damages if the judge decides to tack some on.
They might very well do that to make an example of this defendant. The judge may want to make sure that no one else does what they did, since vicious dogs running loose poses an obvious danger to otherwise peaceable neighborhoods.
Did You Endure Pain and Suffering?
In some cases, you might sue someone, but you won’t expect to get any money from them other than what you need to cover your legal fees, the cost of any lost wages, the cost of your medical bills, etc. Those fall into the realm of monetary damages.
You can also ask your lawyer about what the law calls noneconomic damages. Money that you might get for pain and suffering often comes into play.
Let’s imagine a scenario where a company made a product that hurt you. The company did not test the product enough, or else maybe they allowed it to reach store shelves without testing it at all. These situations happen more often than you might think.
If the product hurt you badly or made you very ill, then presumably, you endured pain and suffering. Maybe you had to miss work and see a doctor, and that cost you money, but also, you sat at home and suffered for many days before you started feeling better again.
The law feels that in such a situation, you should get money from the responsible person or entity. In this case, that’s the company that made the faulty product.
How Much Can You Get for Pain and Suffering?
The money that you might get for your pain and suffering might exceed what you’ll collect from the defendant for things like lost wages and doctor bills. If you get on the witness stand and talk about how much the product hurt you and the days and weeks of physical agony you endured, then the jury will probably look at you with sympathy. They may feel that they should throw the proverbial book at the company that made the product since they can easily imagine themselves in your shoes.
It’s hard to know how much money you might get in such a case. It’s difficult to put a price on what your pain and suffering should cost.
However, you can look at precedent to get some idea of the monetary amount that’s coming your way. If similar cases ended with payouts that your lawyer knows about, then they can tell you about them before the trial starts. You might get damages that come out to about the same.
Did Loss of Consortium Occur?
You must also look at whether loss of consortium occurred to see how much money you might get from a company or person who harmed you when you decide to sue them. Much like the money to compensate you for financial losses and additional funds you might get for pain and suffering, loss of consortium can add even more if you experienced it.
This legal term means that in a civil case, you lost abilities that you previously had because a person or business entity harmed you. For instance, maybe you can no longer have physical intimacy with your spouse or partner if a product hurt you. Maybe you can’t play catch with you kids anymore, walk or cycle around the neighborhood, or something else.
Much like pain and suffering, you might have a tough time quantifying loss of consortium. How can you put a financial cost on something that you loved to do?
You and your lawyer might come up with an amount together. Again, they will likely look at precedent to help them devise a number, though maybe they can’t find another instance of a lawsuit where someone sued who had exactly the same kind of losses as you.
In any event, all these factors should come into play. If you and your lawyer feel that you have the advantage in a lawsuit because of plentiful evidence that you collected proving what you allege happened, then you can feel reasonably confident that the defendant will try to settle.
If they will not, then you can go to trial. Once you have presented all the evidence, then hopefully, the jury will see things your way and find in your favor.
