What Are Economic Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

When you’re hurt in a personal injury accident, damages is a term you’re going to hear. In the context of an injury accident, damages mean losses. In an injury case, you have a right to recover the full amount of your damages or losses that you have from the event.

Damages are often categorized into two groups: economic damages and non-economic damages. Your economic damages are your financial losses that result from your injury event. Your Las Vegas personal injury law firm can help you better understand the damages in your situation. Here’s what you should know about economic damages.

What Are Economic Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Economic damages in a personal injury lawsuit are the real, actual financial losses that you have because of your injuries. They include all of the monetary losses that you sustain because of the accident. An injury accident causes financial losses in direct and indirect ways. All of these financial losses total up to your economic damages.

Types of Economic Damages in Nevada Personal Injury Cases

Economic damages in Nevada personal injury cases are far more than just your emergency room bills. Here are some of the damages that qualify as economic:

Past and Future Medical Bills

Any type of medical bills that you have qualify as economic losses. Your doctor’s bills and emergency bills certainly count, but there are lots of types of medical expenses that qualify as economic damages including:

• Emergency room bills
• Urgent care bills
• Follow-up doctor visits
• Physical therapy
• Diagnostic tests
• X-rays
• Blood tests
• Physical therapy aids
• Mobility aids like crutches, braces, and wheelchairs
• Occupational therapy
• Travel costs to medical appointments
• Prescription costs

Any medical-related expenses that you have, even over-the-counter expenses, can count as medical economic damages.

Mental Health Treatment Costs

The cost of mental health treatment is part of your economic damages. Psychological health injuries are genuine injuries that result from personal injury accidents. If you have expenses to treat PTSD, depression, anxiety or another mental health injury, your related costs are part of your economic damages.

Past Lost Wages

Lost wages are the real, actual, sustained lost income that you have because of your injuries. If you don’t work for a month because of your injury, your economic damages include the actual income you would have made.

If you earn tips or bonuses, these amounts are included. Past lost wages should be something that you can calculate into a fixed dollar amount. Your lost wages are what you didn’t earn between the time of your injury and when you either return to full work or when it’s time to resolve your case.

Future Lost Earning Capacity

Of course, if you’re unable to work because of a personal injury, you might be off work for months or even years. You might be unable to work indefinitely. Future lost earning capacity is a type of economic damages that looks at what you’re going to miss out on earning in the future.

If you have to transition to a new line of work or you miss out on promotions, you can take the reduced income into account. You may need the help of an occupational expert to arrive at an accurate figure for this type of economic damages.

Property Damages

Whether you sustain damage to a vehicle or any other tangible item that you own, your property damages are part of your economic losses. You might value your losses at the cost to repair the item. If the item is irreplaceable, you might use the fair market value or the replacement cost. The actual loss of property items is a category of economic damages.

Household Services

When you sustain severe injuries in an accident, you may need extra help doing the things that you used to do. You may need help doing household chores, taking care of the outdoors, driving children to their activities or providing regular care for dependent family members. If you have to hire outside services where you used to do these things yourself, your economic damages can include the value of these external costs.

Economic Damages May Be Now or in the Future

Some of your economic damages are immediate. You can get the receipts for the bills and expenses that you have right after the accident. In the weeks and months immediately after your accident, you can total up the costs of medical bills, lost work, and property repair.

Other economic damages are likely to occur in the future. For example, your career trajectory may change because of a personal injury event. You may have medical bills for the rest of your life. You may not know exactly what the value of these losses are at the time you value your injury claim.

Even though you don’t necessarily have a value for these types of losses right now, they still qualify as your economic damages. You might need an expert or experts to help you place the right value on these damages for the purpose of bringing your claim. However, economic damages include both losses that you already had in the past and losses that you expect to have in the future. Sometimes, your projected future losses can be much higher than your losses to date, so it’s essential to include future losses in the value of your claim.

Is There a Limit to the Economic Damages That You Can Recover in a Personal Injury Case?

No, there is no limit to the economic damages that you can recover in a personal injury case. While there may be limits to pain and suffering in some cases, you may recover the full value of your economic damages. It’s important to evaluate all of the categories of damages to include in your claim.

Our Attorneys Can Help You Value Economic Damages

Do you have questions about the value of your injury case? Are you wondering if something counts as economic damages? We can help. Our team of experienced Las Vegas and Henderson personal injury lawyers is proud to support deserving personal injury victims arrive at a fair value of their claim. There’s no cost to call for a free consultation. Contact us today for an immediate discussion of your claim.