If you were hurt because of someone else’s carelessness in a car accident or other incident, you might have the right to seek compensation for the losses you’ve experienced. But not all losses come with a clear price tag. It’s easy to see how much money you owe in medical bills or how many hours or days you’ve missed from work.
However, it’s harder to put a number on things like pain, stress, or the impact on your daily life. These losses are known as non-economic damages and play an essential role in many personal injury cases.
In this article, we’ll explain what non-economic damages are, provide examples, and show how they might influence your claim. Understanding these concepts can help you work with your legal team to seek a full financial recovery.
What Are Non-Economic Damages?
Non-economic damages are meant to compensate for the effects of an injury that don’t have a specific dollar amount attached to them. These are losses you can’t prove with an invoice or a paycheck. Instead, they cover the real but less visible ways your life might be changed by an accident or injury.
In most personal injury cases, you’ll encounter two broad types of compensation:
- Economic Damages: costs you can measure, such as medical bills, property damage, or lost wages
- Non-Economic Damages: intangible harms that affect your well-being and quality of life
Non-economic damages aim to place a monetary value on these harder-to-measure injuries so that you can be “made whole” again as best as possible. There is a third category of damages as well, called punitive damages. However, these damages are reserved for rare cases where the at-fault party acted egregiously.
Common Examples of Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages can take many forms, depending on the severity of your injuries and how they impact your life. Some examples include:
- Pain and Suffering: physical pain and the emotional toll of living with injuries
- Emotional Distress: anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: inability to participate in hobbies or everyday activities you once enjoyed
- Loss of Consortium: negative effects on a relationship with a spouse or family member
- Scarring or Disfigurement: the psychological impact of long-term physical changes
- Long-Term Disability: ongoing limitations that prevent you from living independently
These damages can be just as significant as any financial losses. Oftentimes, non-economic damages can add up to most of the overall personal injury claim’s value. Ultimately, the facts of your case will largely dictate how much you can recover.
How To Prove Non-Economic Damages
Since non-economic damages don’t come with receipts, you need other ways to show their impact. The stronger the evidence, the better your chances of receiving fair compensation. Some helpful strategies include:
- Keeping a journal of your daily life
- Asking friends or family members to provide statements
- Collecting medical records and mental health reports
- Gathering evidence of lifestyle changes
- Discussing your work limitations
There are two commonly used methods to calculate non-economic damages. With the multiplier method, a factor between 1.5 and 5 is chosen to represent your non-economic damages, which is then multiplied by your economic damages amount. The “per diem” method entails assigning a daily value to your suffering and then multiplying that amount by the number of days you’ve experienced the consequences of your accident.
An experienced personal injury attorney can help you make your case as strong as possible. Sometimes, that might entail bringing in expert witnesses.
Tips for Maximizing Your Non-Economic Damages
Because non-economic damages involve subjective experiences, insurance companies might try to downplay them. But a careful approach can improve your chances of securing fair compensation:
- Document your experiences as best you can.
- Avoid oversharing, like on social media.
- Work with professionals to strengthen your claim.
Your attorney can coach you on how to talk about your experiences without minimizing or exaggerating them. They can also work to maintain the full value of your claim at every stage of the process.
Contact a Pensacola Personal Injury Lawyer for a Free Consultation
Non-economic damages recognize that accidents aren’t just about broken bones and medical bills. Rather, they also involve real human experiences like pain, stress, and life changes. If you’re dealing with the effects of someone else’s negligence, you deserve compensation for the full spectrum of losses you’ve incurred.
Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers can walk you through the process of proving non-economic damages. If you have questions about your claim, reach out to us or call us at (850) 434-3333 for a free consultation today. Keep in mind that most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. That means you will only pay attorney’s fees if your lawyer wins compensation for you.