Hi I’m Steve Knapp, I’m an attorney and partner here at Brett Murphy Law Firm, and I want to talk to you today about damages.
People frequently ask: “What kind of damages can I expect to recover in a civil suit, where one person has caused injury or death to somebody else?”
In Washington the law is set up in a way that money damages can be awarded to try to put the injured person back in the same condition that they were in just prior to the accident, as though the accident had not happened. There are basically two kinds of damages, economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are tangible things that are fairly easily quantified and that would include things like medical bills, loss of wages, repair estimates for damages to a car.
On the other hand, non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify and would include items like loss of consortium, pain and suffering, fear of impending death, loss of enjoyment of life, and as you might imagine, it’s more difficult to quantify these types of damages.
There are many elements that go into quantify what these damages are. Those elements include things such as: Were there any pre-existing conditions? What was the nature and course of the medical treatment? Did the person make a speedy recovery? Did the treatment take a long time? Was it ultimately successful or not? Are there permanent injuries that resulted from this accident? Is the person able to return to their old job? If they can’t return to their old job, is there some job that they can perform?
So as you can see there are many elements and factors that need to go into each case, and each case is different and stands on its own facts. Here at Brett Murphy, all we do are injury cases, we’d be happy to talk to you, let us help you.
To learn more about your options, contact a Brett Murphy personal injury attorney today by calling 1-800-925-1875 or by completing a confidential contact form.