What Are the Different Types of Injuries & Damages?

As you work to resolve your accident claim, you may hear insurance adjusters, lawyers, and doctors talk about different degrees of injuries.  You may hear injuries described as minor, moderate, severe, or catastrophic.  Minor or moderate injuries can be injuries such as sprains, strains, fractures, bruising, or superficial cuts or lacerations, which may be painful, but are injuries which usually heal well in a short period of time with minimal medical treatment. 

A catastrophic injury is a serious injury that will permanently change a person’s life.  Examples of these types of injuries include burns, amputations, spinal cord injuries, paralysis, and traumatic brain or head injuries.  These types of injuries result in the most significant settlements and trial verdicts because the injuries can be objectively proven and are more obvious to the insurance company or jurors. 

Permanent Disability

Unfortunately, some people’s injuries from an accident lead to a permanent total or partial disability or impairment.  A permanent disability is any loss of ability that will remain with the victim for his life and impair to some degree the victim’s ability to work or perform his other normal, day-to-day activities.

Depending on the nature and type of disability, sustaining a permanent disability is often a major, life-changing event for the victim and their family.  Disabled accident victims also face a higher risk of medical complications than uninjured people and often suffer profound emotional injuries related to their disability or impairment.  People with permanent disabilities usually require significant medical care and treatment.  That treatment may include home healthcare nurses, extensive in-patient medical care and rehabilitation, or the need for long-term confinement in a nursing home or assisted living facility.  The person who has suffered a permanent injury or disability is much more likely to recover a large settlement or verdict than a person who has suffered an injury from which he or she has fully recovered.  The extent of pain and suffering damages attributable to a person’s personal injury claim is sometimes dependent on the length of that person’s treatment, whether that person has undergone a long hospitalization and painful surgeries, a long rehabilitation, and the degree of permanency of the injury. 

Financial Losses

Medical Expenses

Even if you have medical insurance or good medical coverage through an applicable liability policy; a lengthy hospital stay, a trip to a specialized care center, or repeated doctor visits and physical therapy appointments can result in thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for medical care.  If you do not have medical insurance, these costs can quickly reach into five or six figures.  For someone who has suffered a catastrophic injury or permanent disability, lifelong medical treatment can cost millions of dollars.

In the context of a personal injury claim, these medical and hospital expenses and bills are part of the damages which you are entitled to recover.  These damages are not limited to only direct healthcare costs, but may extend to any medical expense, including prescriptions, medical devices, and the cost of transportation to and from your doctor’s offices.  Recovering your medical and hospital expenses is often the starting point and an essential element of your personal injury claim. 

In cases involving permanent or catastrophic injury, the personal injury lawyer will want to determine not only what medical and hospital bills you have incurred to date, but he may also need to hire medical experts to determine the cost of future medical treatment related to your injuries.  In some cases, it may be necessary to hire an expert to develop a life care plan to predict and provide for all of your future medical needs.  The experts will evaluate your injuries, review your medical and hospital records and reports, and project the costs of future medical care you will need. 

Lost Income and Loss of Earning Capacity

If you are unable to work because of the injuries you suffer from the accident, you are entitled to recover your lost income.  In addition, if the injuries which you suffered result in a disability or impairment that impacts your future earning potential, you are also entitled to recover monetary damages for such losses.  For example, if a particular injury results in you being unable to perform the specific job you had at the time of the accident but you are able to obtain another job within you physical limitations and restrictions which pays less money than your previous job, you are entitled to recover not only the lost income which you have incurred up to that point in time, but also any future income you continue to lose as a result of having to take the lower paying job. In addition to your lost income and loss of future earning capacity, you may be entitled to recover any loss of fringe benefits such as health insurance, pension plans, benefits, bonuses, or other losses directly associated with your employment.

If you are engaged in a business enterprise or are self-employed, and your injury results in your inability to do your job, it may be necessary for you to hire other persons to replace you. You may be entitled to be compensated for the extra money you pay to the person who takes over your duties and responsibilities during your recovery.  An experienced personal injury lawyer will help you determine all of your financial losses and will seek compensation for those losses.  Your lawyer may need to hire experts such as a “vocational expert” or an “economist”.  These experts will review your financial and medical records, then calculate and predict the economic losses you have suffered from the accident.  If you are self-employed, the insurance company will require you to prove your economic losses through tax returns and other business documents.

Pain & Suffering

A component of a personal injury claim is the manner in which the injuries affect a person’s daily life.  For example, a person who suffers chronic pain after an accident is entitled to be compensated for the pain and suffering resulting from that injury.

Suffering can involve a wide range of emotional states including depression, anxiety, and humiliation.  For example, embarrassment and anxiety may result from a disfiguring facial injury, an amputation, incontinence, paralysis, or an injury that severely limits the victim’s life activities.

A personal injury victim is entitled to recover not only for the pain and suffering they have experienced since the accident, but also that which they may experience in the future.  These damages constitute a separate and distinct item of damage over and above your economic losses.

The ultimate goal of a personal injury claim is to obtain for you maximum compensation so that you may return to your life as it was before an accident.  Although in some cases, the injuries make that impossible, you are entitled to seek compensation for every injury you suffer.

Loss of Consortium

In many states, where one party to a marriage suffers injury, the law permits the other spouse to pursue a legal claim to recover damages suffered as well, even if the spouse did not suffer physical injury from the accident.  Such a claim is known as a “Loss of Consortium” claim.

Blacks Law Dictionary defines “consortium” as the “conjugal fellowship of husband and wife, and the right of each to the company, society, and cooperation, affection and aid of the other in every conjugal relation.”  Loss of consortium includes not only material services that may be lost due to an injury caused by a spouse, but such intangibles as society, guidance, companionship, and sexual relations.  Usually, a loss of consortium claim may be pursued in a personal injury claim where the one spouse has been seriously injured and that injury has had a direct negative impact on the marital relationship.