Accidents can be tough on a person, both physically and financially. Personal injury law is intended to aid individuals who have been injured due to another’s mistake. 

“The aim is to make things right. This means it is not just about paying for medical expenses, lost paychecks, pain, and stress that can linger for a long time after an accident,” says James Harrington of Polito & Harrington LLC.

This is what you need to know about damages after an accident if you are making a personal injury claim in Connecticut.

Understanding Damages in Legal Terms 

In personal injury law, “damages” is simply the money that the person receives after they get hurt due to the actions of another person. The goal of personal injury law is simple: To get the person who is hurt back to where they were before the accident, almost as if the accident never happened.

This includes the financial aspects, such as medical bills, lost wages, etc., as well as the emotional toll of the accident on the person who was hurt. In Connecticut, there are three types of damages: economic, non-economic, and sometimes punitive damages.

Economic Damages 

Basically, economic damages are all about the money you lost because of your injuries. This includes how much it will cost you to stay in the hospital, how much you are losing in paychecks, and what it will cost you in the long run. The good part about this, though, is that you can just add up all of these expenses, and they are not really that hard to figure out.

When there is a paper trail for this kind of damage, people generally do not argue about it too much. However, when you start speculating about how much something will cost you in the long run, such as treatments or lower wages, it gets messy rather quickly.

Non-Economic Damages 

Non-economic damages can be tricky. We are talking about pain, stress, and all the emotional fallout after an accident. You cannot exactly hand someone a receipt for sleepless nights or constant anxiety.

In Connecticut, lawyers and insurance folks usually turn to two main ways to figure out what that is worth: the multiplier method and the per diem method. The multiplier method considers your economic damages and multiplies them by a factor based on the severity of your injury. 

The per diem method works differently. Here, you get a set dollar amount for every single day you are stuck dealing with pain or discomfort. Both aim to find a fair value for what cannot be easily measured.

Punitive Damages 

Punitive damages are not supposed to compensate anyone for the harm they have suffered. Instead, they are intended as a warning or a punishment for the person who caused the harm. Punitive damages are supposed to come in when someone has acted recklessly, on purpose, or out of malice.

Judges in Connecticut rarely order punitive damages. However, if you want to win punitive damages, you need evidence. This evidence should not just prove that someone was careless, but that they did it on purpose or with complete disregard for others.

The Role of a Lawyer in Recovering Damages 

Having a lawyer is something you should aim for if you hope to get everything you have lost. They will also handle all the communication with the insurance company. A good personal injury lawyer will also know how to put a number on what you have lost, so that nothing slips through the cracks.

When it is time to choose a lawyer, try to find one who knows everything there is to know about personal injury cases, has a good reputation, and will not try to hide anything from you. Ask them how much knowledge they have of handling cases like yours. A good lawyer will listen to you, explain things in a way that makes sense, and stick by your side until everything is settled.