So you have been injured in a car wreck (although I prefer collision and some people still call it a car accident) and you don’t know what you can recover from the other party’s insurance company. Here is a short overview:
1. Economic Damages – Economic damages are exactly what they seem – money. If you incur medical bills, these are economic damages. If you miss time from work and lose wages, these are economic damages. If you are going to incur medical bills or lost wages in the future, these are called future economic damages. Economic damages are called special damages.
2. Non-economic damages: Non economic damages are what normal people call pain and suffering. Sometimes you will hear an attorney call it general specials. Pain and suffering compensates you for those things which you could not do as a result of the injury. For example, the time you could not take your daughter to a father daughter dance. Or the time you could not travel to a family reunion. All of these things are non-economic damages.
Things are more complicated, but for most people, you simply need to know that you are entitled to recover out of pocket costs, such as medical bills and lost wages, as well as pain and suffering. If you try to resolve a matter yourself, hire an attorney or go to small claims court, keeping these two types of damages in mind will help you determine if you are getting a fair shake.