When you’re injured in an accident in Texas because someone else is negligent, you’ll have the opportunity to file a personal injury claim for damages. Damages refers to monetary compensation for the consequences you’ve experienced because of another person’s actions.
In Texas, two primary categories of damages can be awarded in personal injury cases: compensatory damages and punitive damages.
Since everyone who gets into an accident in Texas faces unique challenges, not everyone will recover the same types of damages. Further, identifying and calculating damages in a personal injury claim can be complicated, especially as the insurance company works against your interests to limit your payout.
You can protect your financial interests and increase the odds of a substantial monetary award by hiring an experienced Austin personal injury attorney to help you navigate the claims process.
Understanding the Role of Compensatory Damages in Texas Personal Injury Cases
Compensatory damages are intended to make you whole and acknowledge the hard-to-value trauma you experience as an accident victim.
Texas separates compensatory damages into two different categories: pecuniary and non-pecuniary. Each serves a different purpose in aiding you during your recovery.
What Are Pecuniary Damages?
Pecuniary damages, which are often called economic damages, are designed to help you navigate the financial costs and consequences of your accident and injuries.
They often include money for:
- Emergency room care, surgery, hospitalization, and other current medical bills
- Reasonably necessary future medical expenses
- Nursing care and rehabilitation
- Property damage
- Lost wages
- Disability
- Reduced earning capacity
- Out-of-pocket costs (e.g., medical travel and lodging, the cost of a rental car while yours is in the shop)
An award of pecuniary damages should make you whole. It should be as if the accident never happened – at least as far as your bank account and financial situation are concerned. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you compile the documentation needed to prove the full extent of these financial losses.
What Are Non-Pecunary Damages?
Some consequences of an unexpected accident or injury won’t have direct financial costs or values. However, these consequences still affect your life in very meaningful ways.
Non-pecuniary damages, or non-economic damages, are designed to acknowledge the trauma and hardships you face as an accident victim.
Non-economic awards often include money for:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium
- Inconvenience
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Disfigurement and scarring
- Chronic pain
Non-pecuniary damages are difficult to value because these things affect everyone differently. Dow Law Firm works closely with trusted experts and specialists who can offer insight and guidance into how your injuries have affected (and will continue to affect) your life.
The more severely you’re injured and the more your life is turned upside-down because of those injuries, the more your non-pecuniary awards may be valued. Our personal injury attorneys can advocate for a settlement that truly reflects these non-financial burdens.
When Can I Recover Punitive Damages in Texas?
Punitive damages aren’t intended to compensate you for the injuries you’ve suffered. Instead, they’re designed to punish a defendant for extreme and inexcusable behavior. In Texas, punitive damages can only be awarded when a personal injury case goes to trial.
A jury can award punitive damages when there is unanimous agreement that the defendant’s actions were clearly fraudulent, malicious, or grossly negligent. The burden of proof for punitive damages is significantly higher than for compensatory damages, making them more difficult to recover in Texas personal injury cases.
A personal injury lawyer can help you determine if the facts of your case meet the threshold for seeking these damages.
While compensatory damages in most personal injury cases are not subject to caps or limitations, punitive damages are. Punitive damages are capped in Texas to the greater of:
- Two times the value of economic damages plus the value of non-economic damages up to $750,000, or
- $200,000.
Punitive damages are awarded in addition to any compensatory damages that are also ordered by a judge or jury in Texas.
What Are the Damages in My Personal Injury Case Worth?
There’s no standard value for damages in a personal injury case. It varies from one situation to another. How much money you might be able to recover for the damages in a personal injury claim will depend on factors that are unique to your case.
- What types of injuries have you suffered, and how serious are they?
- Will you be diagnosed with some level of permanent impairment or disability?
- Will you need long-term rehabilitation, nursing care, or medical care?
- How has your accident affected your ability to work – now and in the future?
- How has your quality of life changed since you got hurt?
- How old are you, and what’s your life expectancy?
Economic damages are much more objective. You can recover economic awards for any monetary losses that you can support with evidence, like medical bills, wage statements, and repair invoices.
Non-economic damages are subjective and often valued using a multiplier. Your anguish and stress are assigned a level between 1 and 5. That value is then multiplied by the value of your economic losses. The result is the value of your non-economic award.
For example, if your multiplier was a 4 and your pecuniary damages were valued at $100,000, your non-economic damages would be worth $400,000. The sum of your compensatory damages would be $500,000.
More serious injuries tend to warrant higher-valued damages. However, never underestimate what your personal injury case might be worth or leave money on the negotiating table. Demand top results by trusting Dow Law Firm’s Austin personal injury attorneys to fight for you.
Contact an Austin Personal Injury Lawyer From Dow Law Firm
We’re award-winning Austin trial lawyers with decades of experience litigating high-stakes, high-value personal injury cases for accident victims and families. We’ve won millions for our clients, and we can help you fight for top damages in your personal injury case, too.
Our personal injury attorneys in Austin offer a free consultation, so contact Dow Law Firm today at (512) 240-9951 with questions about damages that might be available in your injury case.