When someone is injured due to the negligent, reckless, or careless behavior of someone else, they may have the option of filing a personal injury lawsuit. The purpose of such a lawsuit is to pursue compensation for the losses the victim has suffered. Lawsuits can involve both “compensatory” and “punitive” damages, but both of these serve distinct purposes. Understanding the differences is an important part of ensuring that victims achieve the justice that they deserve.
What Are Compensatory Damages?
As the name implies, compensatory damages are meant to compensate the victim for the financial and personal losses that they suffered as a result of their injuries. These damages are the core focus of every personal injury lawsuit and comprise two categories: economic and non-economic.
Economic
Economic damages are objective and relatively easy to calculate. The victim must show that the damages sought are both reasonable and necessary. There are several categories of economic damages that the victim, with the help of their personal injury lawyer, can claim in their lawsuit:
- Medical bills: Covered here are such expenses as ambulance care, hospitalization, surgery, prescription drug medication, lab tests, imaging (e.g., X-rays), physical therapy, rehabilitation, adaptive medical equipment, and incidental expenses like travel. Both past expenses and reasonably projected future costs are included. Calculating the amount of damages requires examining bills and consulting expert witnesses who can estimate future reasonable costs.
- Lost wages: While recovering from one’s injuries, a victim will often not be able to work. Missed work can start to add up quickly when the victim suffers a serious injury, so they are allowed to ask for compensation for the income they lose. The victim will need to show how much work they missed and how much income this amounts to.
- Lost earning capacity: If the victim is not able to work the same job as before the injury, or at the same productivity level, they can request lost earning capacity damages. This is also called diminished earning capacity and accounts for future missed income and benefits. By considering the victim’s age and likely remaining working years, among other factors, it’s possible to determine a fair estimate of future lost income.
- Property damage: You may have had your personal property damaged or destroyed in an accident. For instance, your vehicle could have been totaled, and you may have lost other items in a car crash. These losses can also be included by examining replacement or repair estimates and other information.
Non-Economic
Non-economic damages are more subjective in nature and are meant to account for intangible personal losses, including:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Mental anguish
- Loss of consortium
- Decreased quality of life
Since non-economic damages are by nature unrelated to the victim’s financial losses, calculating them can be challenging. There are two common methods that help determine a fair amount of compensation:
- Multiplier method: This approach involves selecting a number between 1 and 5, with a higher number corresponding to a more serious injury. The jury then multiplies the economic damages by this number to arrive at an amount of non-economic damages.
- Per diem method: Using the per diem method requires considering how long the victim suffered the non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering) and then assigning a dollar value per day.
There are no caps on compensatory damages. But as mentioned above, the victim/plaintiff must be able to show that they are reasonable and necessary.
What Are Punitive Damages?
Punitive damages (also known as “exemplary” damages) are intended to punish the defendant and deter future wrongdoing. Unlike compensatory damages, these are not available in every personal injury case. Rather, they are only allowed where there is evidence that the at-fault party engaged in conduct that was willful, malicious, or showed a blatant disregard for the rights and safety of others.
A plaintiff who wishes to pursue punitive damages must be able to demonstrate:
- Willful, malicious, blatant disregard: These go beyond mere negligence but can be evidenced by statements the at-fault party made right after the accident, evidence of their mindset before the accident, and more.
- Clear and convincing evidence: This is a standard of proof that is higher than that used for compensatory damages. Essentially, the evidence of the first point above must be fairly strong.
- Public policy considerations: Judges may weigh whether awarding punitive damages will help deter similar misconduct in the future and promote broader societal safety.
Although there are no caps on them, calculating punitive damages can be difficult in Illinois. They cannot be excessive or disproportionate to the harm that the at-fault party did.
What is The Difference Between Compensatory and Punitive Damages?
The main difference between compensatory damages and punitive damages lies in their purpose. Whereas compensatory damages are designed to make the victim “whole,” or return them as close as practically possible to the state they were in before suffering injury, punitive damages are meant to penalize and deter the behavior that caused the harm. Compensatory damages are awarded in every personal injury case, while punitive damages are relatively rare and only available in cases with particularly egregious conduct.
When Punitive Damages Might Be Awarded
It’s difficult to overstate the high threshold that a victim must reach before being awarded punitive damages. Nonetheless, a few case examples of punitive damages can illustrate when a court may want to consider them:
- Drunk driving: Judges have a very low tolerance for drunk driving, whether in the criminal or civil context. To attempt to send a message that this behavior is unacceptable and discourage it, the judge may award punitive damages.
- Discharging a firearm: Firing a gun into a crowd shows clear indifference for the lives and safety of others, especially when children are present. A person who shot and injured a victim may therefore be further punished by an order to pay punitive damages.
- Assault: It goes without saying that attacking a person and deliberately trying to injure them shows willful conduct. Not only will the at-fault party have to pay the victim’s compensatory damages, but they can be ordered to pay a certain amount of punitive damages as well.
- Product liability: When a manufacturer or other company deliberately flouts safety standards in the pursuit of profit, and makes or sells dangerous and defective products as a result, the entire public is put at risk.
Punitive damages are highly likely if the judge is made aware of the sheer danger that this behavior poses for society.
These punitive damages examples are hypothetical, and whether you can seek them depends on the unique and highly specific facts of your case. Your attorney can take a closer look at what qualifies for punitive damages as you develop your litigation case strategy.
Get Help Understanding Your Potential Damages
At Power Rogers, we take the financial and personal losses of personal injury victims seriously. Our attorneys are committed to pursuing fair compensation and justice, whether that means compensatory damages to cover your losses or, in cases of particularly egregious conduct, punitive damages to hold the at-fault party accountable.
If you or a loved one has been injured in Illinois, it’s important to know your options. Contact Power Rogers today by phone or our online form to schedule a free consultation. We can carefully evaluate the facts and evidence to ensure you seek all forms of damages available to you.
