What Are Non-Economic Damages?
After you’ve been injured in an accident, you may be online trying to learn everything you can about how to get justice for your suffering. While you may be able to learn about the claims process online, finding out how much your claim is worth is an entirely different matter and one you may need a personal injury attorney’s help with.
Calculating the value of your claim is a very personalized experience, as each person’s suffering manifests in different ways after an injury or accident. You can learn more about how personal injury losses are calculated and what role non-economic damages play in these calculations.
How Your Lawsuit Is Valued
If you hope to maximize your injury settlement, you’ll need to be sure that your lawyer is taking into account every way your life has been adversely affected by what’s happened to you. Your lawyer will generally start out by taking an inventory of your economic damages. These consist of all of the monetary losses you’ve suffered as a result of the accident. Some of these might include:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income
- Diminished earning capacity
- Unexpected childcare expenses
- Costs of household services
- Financial reputational damage
- Property damage
Since these types of losses are financial in nature, their impact is easy to quantify. But non-economic damages are an entirely different matter.
The Importance of Non-Economic Damages
It stands to reason that if economic damages encompass your financial losses, non-economic damages would include all of the other ways your life has been influenced by your injuries. These have nothing directly to do with money, but that doesn’t make them any less influential.
For example, you may have endured considerable excruciating pain while you recovered. How do you quantify trauma like that? It’s challenging, but your lawyer will be able to help you determine how much your non-economic damages and your lawsuit as a whole are worth.
Some non-economic damages you may be able to recover as part of your personal injury claim include:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of companionship and love
- Lost quality of life
- Other kinds of reputational damage
- Inconvenience
- Loss of society and support
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer in Ohio
If you have questions about how much your injury lawsuit could be worth but you aren’t sure where to turn for help, call an experienced personal injury lawyer at Rafidi, Pallante & Melewski LLC.
Our firm proudly offers complimentary consultations to injury victims across the state. Take advantage of this opportunity when you complete our convenient contact form or call our office at 1-866-494-5387.