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How Will Your Lawyer Calculate Your Noneconomic Damages?

Published on Aug 6, 2021 at 8:28 am in Personal Injury.

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When you’ve been in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence and it caused you harm in the form of physical and emotional damages, then you could hold them accountable for those costs with the help of a personal injury lawyer. Their job will then be to prove the other party’s negligence in what happened and calculate exactly what you’re owed in damages.

There are two main types of damages that you can recover in a personal injury claim, and those are economic and noneconomic damages. Let’s take a look at the latter and how your attorney will calculate what you’re owed in those types of damages.

What Are Noneconomic Damages?

Before you know how your lawyer will calculate the noneconomic damages you suffered in your accident, you should know exactly what those types of damages are. If you’ve never filed a personal injury claim before, you might think that the actual costs, or economic damages are the only costs that you can recover compensation for.

But you can also recover from noneconomic damages, which are the more abstract costs that you suffered as a result of an accident. When you suffer physical or emotional pain from someone else’s negligence, then you are likely eligible to get compensation for that pain.

Here are the different afflictions that can contribute to what you’re owed in noneconomic damages:

  • Pain and Suffering
  • Inconvenience
  • Physical Disability
  • Disfigurement
  • Mental Anguish
  • Loss of Enjoyment of Life
  • Loss of Companionship
  • Loss of Consortium
  • Injured Reputation

There are other factors that could go into your noneconomic damages, but these are the most common ones that we see in personal injury claims. All of these afflictions listed above are what your lawyer will use to calculate what you’re owed. Let’s look more into how your attorney will do that.

How Noneconomic Damages Are Calculated

Now that you understand what noneconomic damages are, you can better understand how they’re calculated by your lawyer. These can be harder to calculate because unlike economic damages, there might not be firm bills that can be associated to noneconomic damages.

The most common way that attorneys and insurance companies determine how much you’re owed in noneconomic damages is by using the multiplier method. This gives a number based on your economic damages, but still takes into account the physical and emotional pain that you suffered as a result of those injuries and other costs.

The multiplier that is used to determine your specific damages could vary from case to case, but a commonly used multiplier is 1.5. This means that your lawyer will take your economic damage amount that they calculated, multiply them by 1.5, and then that result is how much you’re owed for noneconomic damages.

Another way that your attorney could calculate what you’re owed in noneconomic damages is the daily rate method. This can be harder to use, which is why the multiplier method is more commonly used. Your lawyer will determine how much it costs you per day to live with your injuries, and then multiply that by how many days it will take you to fully recover.

No matter which method is used, you’ll want a personal injury attorney on your side because determining the amount you’re owed in noneconomic damages can be complicated. Since each case will have a different value for these damages, you can’t know how much a fair amount is just by using an online calculator or trying to figure it out yourself.

That’s why an experienced personal injury lawyer will benefit you greatly when you’re suffering from physical and emotional harm after an accident. They’ll be able to look into your claim and use their expertise to calculate what you’re owed.

DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC Will Get You Fair Compensation

When you’re filing a claim, whether it’s after a car accident, slip and fall, or another type of accident where someone else was negligent, you’re likely thinking about the financial compensation you can recover. Many times, the other party or insurance company will push you to settle for less than you deserve.

With a Charleston personal injury lawyer from DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC on your side, you can rest assured that you won’t get pressured into settling for less. We’ll calculate exactly what you’re owed in real and abstract damages and ensure that you get full and fair financial recovery. Contact us today so that we can discuss your legal options and start working for you.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice. Viewing does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. Prior case results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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