After an accident or injury, economic damages accumulate quickly. Totaling these monetary losses is a relatively straightforward matter: add up medical bills and lost income. But what about the non-economic damages that are the worst aspects of an injury? Make sure to speak with an experienced car accident lawyer in Marysville for legal guidance and support.
Washington RCW 48.140.010, defines non-economic damages as follows:
“Non-economic damages mean subjective, nonmonetary losses including, but not limited to, pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, disability or disfigurement incurred by the injured party, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation, and destruction of the parent-child relationship.”
Understanding Economic vs. Non-Economic Damages:
Economic damages after a personal injury or wrongful death claim in Washington include all of the financial losses caused by the injury. Common economic damages include:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Out-of-pocket injury costs, such as for home assistance, adaptive equipment, and travel expenses for seeing specialists
- Past and future income loss
- Reduced future earning ability (due to disability)
- Wrongful death damages for a fatal personal injury, such as funeral and burial costs, and the decedent’s lost income paid to the closest surviving family members
These are tangible losses that are easily calculated. Assigning a monetary value to intangible, non-economic consequences of the injury, like pain and suffering, requires a different approach.
Calculating Non-Economic Damages In a Washington Personal Injury Claim
Determining the amount of compensation for non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, often requires consulting a medical expert about the injury’s impacts, including the expected pain level and duration, as well as its effects on mobility, range of motion, and earning ability. Most personal injury and car accident attorneys use one of the two following formulas to determine non-economic damages:
- The Multiplier Method assigns a number between 1 and 5 to represent the severity of the injury, with 5 indicating the most severe. Then, the attorney multiplies the total amount of the injury victim’s medical expenses by this number. The result is the amount they seek for the injury victim’s non-economic damages.
- The Per-Diem Method assigns a daily monetary value to represent the pain and suffering the injury victim experiences, then multiplies that amount by the number of days they can expect to feel pain until they reach their maximum medical improvement.
In some cases, A claim also considers emotional impacts like PTSD, anxiety, depression, or loss of enjoyment of life. Non-economic damages in wrongful death claims include emotional grief and anguish, and the loss of a parent or child’s love and support, or a spouse’s companionship and consortium.
What Evidence Is Required to Calculate Non-Economic Damages?
Recovering non-economic damages requires evidence of the injury victim’s pain, suffering, and other impacts, such as trauma from catastrophic injuries. These are permanent injuries, like loss of limb, disability, chronic pain, disfigurement, loss of hearing, vision damage, or diminished quality of life. Evidence of non-economic damages often includes the following:
- Testimony of medical experts, physical therapists, and occupational therapists
- Eyewitness testimony of family and friends who witness the impacts of the injury on the injury-victim’s life
- The injury victim’s medical report
- A daily pain journal chronicling the injury victim’s pain level, medical appointments, and procedures
- Notes from emotional health counseling sessions for PTSD, anxiety, depression, or sleep disorders
A personal injury or car accident lawyer determining non-economic damages may try both formulas for calculating non-economic damages and choose the option with the best results for their client. Contact Wells Trumbull today for legal guidance.