Many Burlington, Vermont, residents suffer serious injuries each year in auto accidents, medical malpractice, and falls. When these injuries are the direct result of another person or legal entity failing to take care to avoid harm, the victims may seek compensation through a personal injury claim. This typically results in either a negotiated settlement, usually with the wrongdoer’s insurance company, or a civil lawsuit in the Civil Division of Vermont Superior Court.
Compensation in a personal injury case is for damages, which is simply a legal term used to describe the money that the wrongdoer owes the victim. For example, if a personal injury case goes to trial, the jury can award damages to the plaintiff (the victim) that must then be paid by the defendant (the wrongdoer). These damages are meant to compensate the victim for their losses and are therefore known as compensatory damages.
What Are Economic Damages?
Compensatory damages can be further subdivided into two categories: special damages and general damages. Special damages are also known as economic damages and are the focus of this article. General damages, also known as non-economic damages, will not be addressed in detail here. But in brief, non-economic damages are meant as compensation for subjective losses, such as the victim’s pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and grief.
Economic damages, on the other hand, deal with losses that can be quantified in terms of dollars and cents. Calculating economic damages can still be quite complex depending on the nature of the injuries involved. A key reason for this is that economic damages often must account for not just past or present losses but also an estimate of anticipated future losses.
Medical Expenses
The most common form of economic damages in a Vermont personal injury case is medical expenses. This encompasses any money spent on providing medical care and rehabilitation for the victim’s injuries arising from the underlying accident. Let’s consider a simple hypothetical example. You are injured in a slip-and-fall accident at the supermarket and break your arm while attempting to brace your fall. You subsequently receive emergency treatment at the hospital and ongoing specialist care for your broken arm.
All of your resulting medical bills form part of your economic damages. This includes any hospitalization or surgery costs. It also covers any prescription medications, physical therapy, and other incidentals related to medical care. It can even include special devices you need to get around, such as a wheelchair or crutches, following your accident.
Now, a broken arm generally heals within a relatively short period of time. If your injuries are more permanent, that can substantially increase your economic damages. Consider a person who is paralyzed as the result of a spinal cord injury sustained in a car accident. Such a victim will require a lifetime of medical care. The exact dollar amount is impossible to determine in the present. But there are methods commonly used by insurance companies and personal injury lawyers to make a reasonable estimate of those anticipated future expenses.
It is also important to note that economic damages generally refer to actual out-of-pocket costs. That is to say, you can only seek compensation for your actual medical bills or out-of-pocket expenses. If you have health insurance, your insurer often receives a substantial discount from the “retail” price of the services rendered. Any amount that insurance pays on your behalf can offset your economic damages for medical expenses. The way this actually works in practice is that a settlement or verdict includes damages for your whole medical expenses, then you will have to pay back a portion of the expenses actually paid by your health insurer.
Loss of Income
The second-most common form of economic damages in Vermont personal injury cases are loss of income. Here, we are talking about the total compensation you lost due to your inability to work while recovering from your accident. Again, let’s look at a simple hypothetical accident where you need to miss a week of work for recovery. If your employer didn’t pay you for that week, you can seek that lost compensation as part of your economic damages against the wrongdoer who caused your accident.
In cases involving long-term or permanent injuries, loss of income may include more than just a missed paycheck. Generally an accident victim may seek all forms of lost compensation, including fringe benefits, expected commissions, and even self-employment income. Basically, any money that you could have reasonably expected to earn but-for your injury is fair game for economic damages.
Along those lines, economic damages can also include lost or diminished “earning capacity.” This refers to a situation where the victim cannot return to their pre-accident job. In some cases they are totally disabled and unable to work at all. In others, they may be able to retrain for a new job that accounts for their condition. Either way, the costs of replacing that expected future income or providing vocational rehabilitation falls within the scope of economic damages.
Property Damage
Economic damages also encompass any property damage suffered by the victim. This often comes up with respect to motor vehicle accidents. Your economic damages include the costs of repairing or replacing your damaged vehicle. It can also include any property damaged or lost within the vehicle. Such damages are typically based on the actual cost of making repairs or the fair market value of replacing the property in cases of a total loss.
Wrongful Death
When a victim dies as the result of someone else’s negligent or intentional act, the victim’s estate can seek economic damages through a wrongful death claim. Under Vermont law, such economic damages can include the victim’s final medical expenses, their funeral and burial costs, and the estimated future income the victim would have earned for their family. If the victim did not work outside of the home, the estate can recover economic damages for the value of the household services they provided.
Contact a Burlington Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Obtaining full and fair compensation for an accident can seem like a daunting process. OurBurlington personal injury attorneys are here to help. Contact Larson & Gallivan law today at 802-327-8459 to schedule a free initial consultation.
