Personal Injury Money Damages: What is Your Case Worth?
If you are like most people who contact our Tuscaloosa accident law firm following a car crash, a commercial truck wreck, or some other type of serious or catastrophic accident, you are probably wondering what your case is worth.
You have questions like:
How am I going to pay my medical bills?
What do I do if I can’t go back to work? And what do I do about the paychecks I am missing in the meantime?
How will I take care of my family now and in the future?
These are all fair questions that the Tuscaloosa accident law firm attorneys at Cross & Smith will be able to discuss with you in detail during an initial meeting. In the meantime, the information provided below will help you understand the different types of damages that can be awarded in an Alabama personal injury case.
Types of Personal Injury Compensation in Alabama
Under Alabama law, if you become injured as a result of another person’s negligent or intentional actions, you are entitled to seek damages as compensation for your injuries. In some cases, additional damages — known as punitive damages — may be awarded as a kind of punishment to discourage people from behaving badly.
Damages to Make You Whole
Compensatory damages — also referred to as actual damages — are designed to put you back into the position you were in before the accident happened. In other words, these damages are supposed to make you whole. There are two categories of compensatory damages: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages include out-of-pocket expenses that can be calculated or reasonably estimated, such as:
Your current and anticipated medical expenses
Your current and future lost wages
Your loss of earning capacity
The value of the property you lost
The amounts you may recover for non-economic compensatory damages are more subjective. Non-economic damages usually include amounts to compensate you for:
Your pain and suffering
Your loss of intimacy with your partner
Losing the ability to engage in activities you enjoy
The emotional distress you are experiencing because of the accident
Damages to Discourage Wrongful Acts
While every person injured by the negligence of another can be awarded compensatory damages, that is not the case with punitive damages. As your Tuscaloosa accident law firm attorneys will explain in greater detail, in order to receive punitive damages in Alabama you have to show the party responsible for your suffering was more than merely negligent, they were what the courts call “malicious or egregiously reckless.” In other words, they did what they did on purpose or without caring whether you or others were harmed or not.
Because they are designed to discourage this kind of bad behavior, punitive damages awards in Alabama can be quite large, as much as three times the amount that you might collect for compensatory damages, with a cap of $1.5 million.
How Cross & Smith Tuscaloosa Accident Law Firm Attorneys Can Help
How much you might actually be able to recover in your case depends on a lot of factors. The Tuscaloosa accident law firm attorneys at Cross & Smith will discuss your case and possible recovery scenarios at your initial consultation. Please contact us online or call our office at (877) 791-0618 for a free confidential consultation.
"I have been friends with Dell Cross since we were roommates at UA Law and have had the pleasure of conferring with Cross & Smith, LLC in a professional capacity for many years. As a law office which specializes in domestic relations and family law matters, it is imperative that my office maintain a consistent client referral relationship with a law firm which can effectively address personal injury matters brought to us by our clients." Posted By: Mark Sterling Gober
