What Constitutes Non-Economic Damages?

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Economic Damages

Arizona law allows you to seek compensation for accident-related ailments and losses if you were injured due to the negligence of another party. The legal term for your compensation for these losses is “damages.” To discover more about what non-economic damages are and how you might be able to receive compensation for them, contact your local law firm.

Economic damages recompense you for specific monetary losses. Since records, such as invoices and receipts, are accessible as direct proof of your loss, proving these losses is simple. Included in economic losses are medical expenses and salaries lost. Consequently, what are non-economic damages?

Noneconomic Damages Definition

Non-economic damages compensate you for the non-monetary and intangible effects of your injury. Non-economic losses are biased and more challenging to prove than economic losses, which are objective and verifiable.

Due to the fact that non-economic damages can be complicated to prove, the sum of non-economic losses you may be awarded in a personal injury case is heavily dependent on the extent to which your injuries have affected your day-to-day life and the type of evidence or witnesses that can be gathered to provide proof of the losses you have suffered.

Examples of Non-Monetary Losses

In a personal injury claim, you may recover a variety of non-economic damages. In all categories of personal injury lawsuits, non-economic damages are awarded. These damages are recoverable if you were injured in a car, motorcycle, or slip-and-fall accident. In cases of unlawful death, non-economic damages may also be awarded.

Non-economic damages include:

  • distress and pain
  • Inconvenience
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of life satisfaction 
  • Loss of companionship and community
  • Loss of alliance
  • Mental distress
  • Incapacity, scarring, or deformity

How Are Damages Other Than Economic Losses Calculated?

Calculating the fair and appropriate cost of your non-economic losses in a personal injury case is difficult. Insurance companies do not want to pay more than they must, so they will likely contest your claim for non-economic losses. For your personal injury claim to succeed, you need an attorney skilled at presenting proof of non-economic losses and who has experience interacting with insurance companies.

Therefore, how are non-economic losses calculated, given that they are challenging to measure and verify? Applying a multiplier to the total amount of your economic losses is one method for calculating non-economic losses, especially when the injuries are less grievous and the impact on your daily life is not long-lasting. 

The per diem method is an alternative approach to calculating your non-economic losses. A sum would be determined by multiplying the severity of your injuries by the total amount of days it took you to heal from them.