Utah Car Accident Cases: Determining Your Damages

Anyone who suffers an injury in a Utah auto accident has the right to seek compensation, or damages. One problem that occurs in these circumstances is that figuring out the amount of damages you deserve is not easy. Here is a look at this important legal issue.

Special Damages

You have the right to pursue several types of compensation that fall under a category called special damages.

Medical

One of the main types of special damages is medical expenses, which includes hospitalization, doctor visits, and other health care expenses that are specifically related to your injuries, such as the costs of any prescription medications.

Also, if you require the services of a caretaker or expect that you will need a caretaker in the future, you should seek compensation for this cost as well.

Earnings

When your injuries prevent you from working, you need to seek compensation for your lost earnings or wages. Your estimate of damages from lost earnings should include all potential income that you might have received.

For example, if you have good reason to believe that your earnings or wages would have been much higher in the future than at the time of your injury, you should include those higher lost earnings in your computations.

General Damages

The second main category of damages is known as general damages.

Pain and Suffering

The most common type of damage in this category is called pain and suffering. Any type of physical or mental pain or anguish that results from your injury can be compensated under the legal doctrine of pain and suffering.

Determining the amount of compensation to ask for due to pain and suffering is an especially tricky task because it involves a variety of factors, such as how much pain the injury will cause in the future as well as any psychological counseling you could require due to anxiety and stress that has resulted from the accident.

Loss of Enjoyment

A second type of general damage is the loss of enjoyment. For example, if you were an avid golfer before the accident but are unable to pursue this activity because of your injuries, you may pursue compensation for loss of enjoyment now that you can no longer play golf.

Clearly, putting a dollar figure on your total specific and general damages is complicated. One reason is that some types of compensation categories, such as pain and suffering, are subjective. Even the more objective categories, however, such as medical expenses, are often tough to calculate because future health costs can’t be known with certainty.

Shared Fault

A Utah legal provision that makes your damage calculations even more complex is the concept of shared fault. Under the shared fault provision, your damages may be reduced if you are partly responsible for the accident.

For instance, let’s say that accident investigators determine that the driver of the other vehicle bears 70 percent of the responsibility for the accident while you bear 30 percent. In that case, you could find that your final damage award is reduced by 30 percent.

A key point to keep in mind is that the above example only applies in cases where the person seeking compensation does not bear 50 percent or more of the fault for the accident. If you have an equal or greater responsibility for the accident than the driver of the other vehicle, you cannot receive damages

Determining the amount of compensation you should seek as the result of an auto accident in Utah is not a job for an amateur. To calculate your damages accurately, you will require the assistance of a legal expert with experience in this area of the law. Contact our qualified attorneys at Ipson Law to learn more.