The difference between economic and noneconomic damages

The losses that a Kentucky resident can amass after suffering catastrophic injuries in a personal injury accident can be great. Aside from the physical limitations that their injuries may impose on them, they may watch their medical bills rise as they sit and recover in a hospital bed. When they cannot work because of their accident-related losses, they may suffer even greater economic hardship since they have lost their capacity to earn an income.

The financial losses that a person can identify and list are economic damages. The costs of a victim’s treatments and the medical services they receive that are accident-related can be tabulated into an actual sum. Those sums can be added to property losses, such as the cost of replacing one’s totaled car, income losses, and other financially identifiable damages.

Non-economic losses, on the other hand, are not readily identifiable from bills or other documents. They are the suffering, depression, and emotional troubles that befall personal injury accident victims when their lives are affected by their incidents. A parent who loses their ability to participate in the raising of their child suffers non-economic damages, as does a person who can no longer enjoy the physical activities that they engaged in prior to sustaining their injuries.

Personal injury victims can pursue both economic and non-economic damages when they are involved in negligence-based accidents. These damages may be used by victims to support their efforts of becoming whole in the wake of their losses. In order to determine what economic and non-economic damages a victim may be able to pursue, they can speak with a Lexington injury lawyer to have their potential claims evaluated.