When you’re injured by someone else’s actions or negligence, you can suffer in many ways. You might experience physical pain that erodes your quality of life; you’ll be forced to spend money on medical treatment and therapy; you’ll even lose income if your injuries prevent you from working.
Fortunately, you can be compensated for your economic and non-economic losses by proving another party’s liability for your injuries. Compensation for economic damages is meant to restore you to your pre-injury financial condition.
What Are Economic Damages?
Economic damages represent the financial costs of your injuries. These can include both past costs and reasonably certain future expenses.
Imagine that you’ve injured your head and back in an auto accident. If your doctor testifies that you need back surgery after your head injury heals, your economic losses include the costs you’ll incur for your future back surgery.
Economic damages include both amounts you’ve paid and amounts you have a legal obligation to pay. If you’ve paid out of pocket for anything, you can be reimbursed for those expenses. Similarly, you can receive compensation for any outstanding bills related to your injuries.
To recover economic damages, you must show that they’re reasonable, necessary, and the result of the other party’s culpable conduct. “Reasonable” here means that you didn’t overpay for your expenses. Thus, renting a similar vehicle while repairing your car would qualify as reasonable, while splurging on a sports car likely wouldn’t.
An expense is necessary when your doctor recommends it or it otherwise relates to an injury or loss you’ve suffered. After breaking a leg in a bicycle accident, a wheelchair might qualify as a necessary expense, but getting plastic surgery on your nose wouldn’t be necessary since it doesn’t relate to your broken leg.
To recover economic damages and establish liability for your case, you must generally prove two types of causation (in addition to three other legal elements): “cause-in-fact” and “proximate cause.”
The other person’s actions are a “cause-in-fact” if they logically fall into the sequence of events that led to your injury; they’re a “proximate cause” if they’re the kind of actions that could foreseeably cause an injury.
Examples of Economic Damages
Economic damages can take many forms. Common examples include:
Medical Expenses
Economic losses include any amounts you’ve paid or have an obligation to pay for any of the following:
- Ambulance service
- Office visits
- Surgery
- Out-patient procedures
- Physical or mental health therapy
Importantly, your economic losses also include any amounts you’ve paid to access medical treatment. As such, you can include money you paid for deductibles and insurance copays. You can even seek reimbursement for travel if you can’t access treatment near your home.
Wage Losses
Wage losses reflect what you could have earned without your injuries. Examples of reasons you might have incurred wage losses include:
- Missing work while you recover
- Taking unpaid time off for doctor’s appointments
- Working reduced hours due to physical or mental limitations from your injuries
Damages for wage losses can also factor in diminished earning capacity, covering the wages you’ll lose in the future due to the disabilities you suffer.
Let’s say you were a truck driver before you slipped and fell in a restaurant, and your injuries include a herniated disc that prevents you from sitting comfortably for more than a few minutes. Your economic losses would include the difference between your earnings as a truck driver and those for the new job you can work with your bad back.
Replacement Services
You might need help performing necessary tasks after you get injured. Some services you might need to hire to meet your responsibilities include:
- Transportation
- Cleaning
- Cooking
- Shopping
- Child care
Bear in mind that you must still show that the services you hired were reasonable, necessary, and caused by your injuries. That being the case, you should be careful to make sure your injuries can justify any replacement services you use.
Proving Economic Damages
You’ll use financial records to prove your economic damages. These records might include:
- Receipts
- Credit or debit card statements
- Check images
Proving future economic damages might require witness testimony. For example, a doctor may testify about your physical limitations and the future treatment you’ll need. Similarly, your boss may need to testify about any work limits and wage losses you’ll face based on your new disabilities.
The Role Your Encino Personal Injury Lawyer Plays
When you hire a lawyer, they’ll explain these categories of economic losses and review your expenses with you. Identifying all of your economic losses will enable you to pursue full financial restoration. You’ll provide financial documents to your lawyer to include with your insurance claim or use in court.
Your economic losses could make up a significant amount of the costs of your injuries. Contact an experienced Encino personal injury lawyer at JUSTICENTER Personal Injury Lawyers to discuss your losses and your options for pursuing compensation for them. Contact us today at 833-852-3600 for a free consultation.
