Personal injury lawyers in Fort Erie categorize the nature of the monetary awards that are sought by their different clients. Most clients seek both economic and non-economic damages. Those can also be referred to as general and special damages. Both of them represent a payment to the plaintiff for compensable losses.
General damages (non-economic)
Show a clear link between the defendant’s behavior and the injury suffered by the plaintiff.
The defendant does not have to anticipate the severity of the harm that could get caused by his or her actions. The lawyer for the plaintiff should insist that the defendant must take the plaintiff in the way that he or she has been found, on the day of the accident. These are examples of general damages: pain and suffering
o Physical disfigurement
o Physical impairment
o Mental anguish
o Loss of companionship
o A diminished quality of life
Special damages (economic)
Each of these losses can be expressed in terms of an exact dollar value.
Plaintiffs that seek special damages want financial compensation for their out-of-pocket expenses. Those expenses reflect the need to address problems caused by damaged property, or harm to the plaintiff’s body.These are examples of special damages: lost income
o Current medical expenses
o Future medical expenses
o Loss of irreplaceable items
How can the exact values for future medical expenses be determined?
The attorney for the plaintiff can have an expert serve as a witness. That expert should be someone in the medical profession, someone that specializes in the type of medical treatment that the plaintiff has claimed to need in the future. The expert testifying for the plaintiff should offer a reason why the claimed treatment would be necessary at some point in the future. Yet a medical professional with a similar level of expertise could dispute that same expert.
The plaintiff’s lawyer would not seek out the sort of person that would be qualified to dispute the lawyer’s expert. Still, the defendant’s defense team would have the right to seek out just such a person. That same individual would then testify in court.
The jury would listen to the testimony that was presented by both of the experts. Consequently, the members of the jury would eventually decide on the value of the plaintiff’s future medical expenses. Sometimes, the jurors also hear from an economist. Economists get asked to serve as witnesses because each of them has the ability to calculate the expected cost for a given treatment, based on estimates for the cost of living at some point in the future.
An economist that testified on the plaintiff’s behalf would not be someone for whom the defense team would seek an opposing economist. Still, that team could question the extent of a witness’ training.