Special Damages
Special damages, also known as specific or economic damages, are typically the easiest to calculate and prove. These include:
- Cost of medical care: ambulance expenses, emergency room visits, hospital stays, physician and specialist visits, diagnostic tests and medical imaging, medications, assistive devices, and rehabilitative therapies, such as physical or occupational
- Loss of income: missed work, future missed work and loss or reduction of earning ability if your injuries impede you from doing the job you did before the accident
- Any related household or transportation expenses: hired household assistance for housekeeping or childcare, remodeling or renovating to accommodate your injuries or disability, transportation to and from medical treatment appointments, and any other out-of-pocket expenses deemed necessary
- Property damage: repair or replacement of your vehicle and any other property damaged in during the crash, such as electronics or other valuables
An auto accident lawyer will collect the evidence to support a claim for these damages. For example, medical bills from the hospital and doctor, along with estimates for future medical treatments, will prove claims for medical expenses. You may need recent pay stubs to prove lost wages and future lost income. Additionally, estimations or receipts support a claim for property damage.
General Damages
General damages, also known as non-economic damages, are more subjective than special damages. These include:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress and mental anguish, may cause depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder or generalized anxiety
- Loss of the ability to enjoy life
- Disfigurement
A Queens car accident lawyer may use various methods to calculate general damages. For example, they may add up the special damages and multiply it by a number they determine based on several questions about your case. The number is typically between 1.5 and 5, and questions may include:
- How do your injuries impact your ability to do your normal daily activities?
- How severe are your injuries?
- Will your injuries result in long-term effects or permanent disability?
- What are your medical treatments so far?
- Do doctors expect you to recover fully? If so, what is the estimated recovery time?
- How much treatment do doctors anticipate you will need in the future?
An experienced car accident attorney should argue for the highest reasonable multiplier, and in some cases may result in an increase of the multiplier cap, depending on the severity of the injuries. Your attorney may also use statements and testimonies from yourself and your family and friends to prove a change in your mental or emotional state.
Gross Negligence and Punitive Damages
Punitive damages serve a different purpose than compensatory damages. If the court determines that the defendant acted with malice or showed no regard for the safety of others, they may require the at-fault driver to pay a set amount in punitive damages as punishment. Only in rare cases does the court award punitive damages.
Negligence is not enough to warrant payment of punitive damages. Your car accident attorney must show that the defendant acted recklessly and with gross negligence. In a car accident case, gross negligent action may include:
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Driving a vehicle with known defects, such as a non-operational braking system
- Speeding through areas, such as parks or school zones, with a high volume of pedestrian traffic
Your Queens car accident lawyer can request a punishment of punitive damages if the cause of the accident involves gross negligence. However, the court considers the defendant’s financial situation when determining an amount.
Ultimately, if the defendant is a wealthy person or corporation, you can likely expect a higher punitive damages award.
How Shared Fault Can Affect Your Compensation
When the police arrive at the scene of a car accident, they immediately begin investigating the damages and cause of the accident. When they can quickly identify an at-fault party, they will name the responsible party in the accident report.
However, determining fault is not always a cut-and-dry process.
Suppose you suffer a significant injury that meets the New York injury threshold to file a lawsuit and decide to hire a car accident attorney to represent you in the case. Then your auto accident lawyer will conduct an independent investigation to collect evidence and determine fault.
The defendant’s insurance company will do the same.
The Rule of Comparative Negligence Applied to an Auto Accident Case
Sometimes, investigations lead to a shared fault determination. When the plaintiff in a car accident lawsuit shares responsibility for the accident, they also share responsibility for the resulting damages.
However, being partially at fault does not render you ineligible for compensation. Instead, the comparative negligence rule dictates that you can still receive the portion of the award compensation or settlement remaining after a deduction equaling your percentage of fault.
Additionally, there are two types of comparative negligence: pure and modified. Most states follow modified comparative negligence, which does not allow the plaintiff to receive compensation if their percentage of fault exceeds a threshold of 50% or 51% as determined by the state.
However, in New York, under the pure comparative rule, you are still eligible for compensation, even if your percentage of fault is higher than the defendant’s share.
Your Queens car accident lawyer can help you better understand if and how this may specifically affect your case. However, consider the following general example.
If your case goes to trial, the judge or jury determines if you are at fault and exactly what percentage. Then, they deduct that percentage from the final awarded compensation.
Therefore, if the court awards you $500,000 and determines that you are 20% responsible for the accident, you still receive $400,000 compensation. On the other hand, if the court finds you 80% responsible, you still receive $100,000 because New York allows you to receive compensation as long as you are not solely at fault.