There are many ways you can get assistance after you get hurt. Your family, friends, and even coworkers may all try and lend a hand to help you get through whatever recovery time your condition warrants. Some injuries may leave you with lasting damage to the body that impedes your lifestyle. What are you to do if you can’t work or return to regular activities? You may decide to file a lawsuit to get some financial help from the person responsible. If you do this, you may recover damages. Find out more about what this monetary award means and how the government handles it.
Special Compensatory Damages
When you file a personal injury suit and win, the court may award you financial damages. This monetary award may come in four different types. The most common are special compensatory damages. These are meant to reimburse you for those things you have lost, such as:
- Lost wages — past and future
- Medical bills
- Future healthcare
- Living expenses
Special compensatory damages are non-taxable as they are not wages.
General Compensatory Damages
The next tier of compensation is meant to help ease stress, pain, suffering, and strain on a relationship. General compensatory damages are intangible. These are intended to compensate you for the emotional difficulties your injury has caused you and your family. These are also non-taxable.
Punitive Damages
When the court wants to make an example of the heinous nature of the negligence in a case, they hand down a punitive damage award. This is usually a high figure that is entirely up to the court to determine. You can’t ask for punitive damages like you request compensatory damages. Instead, the court decides to punish the defendant by awarding you a higher dollar amount. These are taxable as they go above reimbursing you for the injury you suffered.
Wrongful Death Damages
In the worst-case scenario, a person with a personal injury may die from the damage caused. Even in the middle of a case, the proceeding may turn into one for wrongful death. The deceased’s family becomes the recipient of any awards for damages and do not need to pay taxes on anything given. The exception is punitive damages, just as in your personal injury case.
Financial compensation may help ease the burden caused by the negligent behavior of another. The most unfortunate outcome of any kind of personal injury lawsuit is that a wrongful death lawyer has to become involved.