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If you’ve been hurt in a car crash in Oklahoma, you may have the right to compensation in the form of economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover financial expenses, like medical bills and lost wages. Non-economic damages, on the other hand, compensate you for personal or emotional suffering. Typically, this compensation comes from the at-fault driver through their liability insurance policy.
What Are Economic Damages?
Economic damages include all financial losses a car accident victim suffers. They are typically calculated using financial records such as bills, invoices, receipts, pay stubs, and income statements. Here are some of the most common categories of economic damages.
Current Medical Expenses
Car accident victims can pursue compensation for the cost of the medical treatment they’ve already received, including emergency care, hospitalization, surgeries, prescriptions, pain management care, medical and orthopedic equipment purchases, and physical and occupational therapy.
Future Medical Expenses
An injured car accident victim should also seek compensation for future medical expenses they expect to have after resolving their car accident claim. Once the victim obtains a settlement or court judgment, they cannot demand more compensation from the at-fault driver later. Since these costs are hypothetical, the victim may need testimony from medical, vocational, and financial experts to establish what they might entail.
Lost Wages
A car accident victim can pursue compensation for income they lose while taking time off work to recover from their injuries. This loss can include wages, salary, benefits, tips, commissions, bonuses, and other revenue streams.
Reduced Earning Capacity
Injuries and disabilities often impact an accident victim’s ability to work and earn a living. Sometimes, a victim might need to transfer to a lower-paying, part-time or light-duty role while they heal. In other cases, long-term impairment can derail a once-promising career, forcing an accident victim into a lifetime of lower-paying work. Reduced earning capacity can cover both scenarios.
Home Modifications
Permanent disabilities might require home renovations in the form of wheelchair ramps, lowered counters, or grab handles. These costs can also be recovered in a car accident claim.
Property Damage
Last but not least is the property damaged in the collision, starting with the vehicle itself. At-fault drivers are typically responsible for paying for the cost of repairing other vehicles they damage. When the insurance company deems a claimant’s vehicle a total loss, they can instead pursue reimbursement for the actual cash value of their car.
What Are Non-Economic Damages?
Non-economic damages compensate for all emotional and personal suffering a person endures due to their injuries. Unlike economic damages, calculating non-economic damages requires a more subjective analysis of the harm and emotional suffering that a car accident victim has endured. Here are some common examples of non-economic damages associated with car wrecks.
Pain and Suffering
An injured car accident victim has the right to pursue compensation for physical pain and anguish they experience due to their injuries and subsequent medical treatment, such as post-operative pain.
Emotional Distress
Emotional distress refers to the psychological consequences of a car crash. This may include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by the trauma of the accident or distress from injuries, disabilities, and disfigurement that the person suffered due to the collision.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Car accident victims may experience reduced quality of life due to lingering or permanent disabilities that interfere with daily tasks or the ability to participate in favorite activities. These damages can also cover embarrassment caused by permanent, visible scarring or disfigurement.
Loss of Consortium
An injury victim’s spouse may have a claim to compensation for loss of consortium, or the loss of a spouse’s care, affection, companionship, guidance, support, and intimate relations.
Disfigurement and Scarring
Permanent disfigurement and scarring can negatively affect a car accident victim’s life in many ways. For example, scarring over or near a joint can lead to a loss of flexibility and mobility. The physical appearance of the disfigurement or scarring may also make an accident victim ashamed to take part in certain activities.
Disability
Prolonged and permanent disabilities can cause emotional distress, depression, and anxiety over an inability to perform daily tasks like grooming, eating, or bathing. Impairment can also prevent an accident victim from participating in activities they previously enjoyed, like sports or traveling.
What Are Punitive Damages?
In rare cases, a jury in a car accident lawsuit may award a victim punitive damages. These damages are unlike economic and non-economic damages, which compensate a car accident victim for specific losses they’ve suffered because of the collision. Instead, punitive damages punish an at-fault driver for willful, malicious, wanton, or reckless conduct. For example, a jury may award punitive damages after a car wreck where the at-fault driver made the conscious decision to drive despite feeling the effects of heavy alcohol or drug intoxication. Punitive damages also act as a deterrent to discourage others from engaging in similar conduct.
Oklahoma law caps the punitive damages a jury may award in certain circumstances. In cases involving recklessness, the jury may award punitive damages up to the greater of $100,000 or the actual damages awarded. When there is intentional and malicious conduct, the jury may award punitive damages up to the greater of $500,000 or twice the actual damages awarded. However, if the court also finds that the at-fault driver acted intentionally and with malice to risk someone’s life, the jury may award any amount of punitive damages it deems appropriate.
Contact an Oklahoma Car Accident Lawyer
Have you been hurt in a car crash in Oklahoma? If someone else is to blame, get the legal help you need to pursue financial recovery for your medical bills, lost wages, car repairs, and pain and suffering. Contact Edwards & Patterson Law today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a car accident lawyer. You can discuss your legal options and get help dealing with the insurance company.
