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If you have recently been injured in a slip and fall accident caused by a landowner’s negligent property management, the idea of trying to put a specific financial value on the pain and suffering you are dealing with can understandably feel a little offensive. However, in practice, this is how personal injury litigation works: by identifying specific forms of harm an accident has caused you to suffer, and holding the person at fault for that accident liable to reimburse you for associated costs as much as reasonably possible.
With that in mind, assessing damages in Philadelphia slip and fall claims is one of the most important parts of the entire litigation process—and, as many people learn the hard way, also one of the most complex. If you want to make sure you get paid fairly for the injuries you have sustained from your accident, you should make contacting and retaining a seasoned slip and fall lawyer one of your top priorities.
Assessing the Value of Economic Damages
Compensatory damages—meaning harm caused directly by a third party’s misconduct, which are meant to be “compensated” through a lawsuit or settlement demand—in Philadelphia slip and fall claims can be divided into one of two categories based on how their financial value is assessed. Technically, it is possible for a court to award compensation for punitive damages as well, but this is a rare outcome for slip and fall claims to have, since it requires the defendant to have engaged in extremely egregious or intentionally malicious misconduct.
Economic damages are compensatory damages that can be assigned an objective financial value based on quantitative evidence. Assessing the value of these losses during a slip and fall case is sometimes as straightforward as referencing:
- Specific figures on bills for medical treatment
- Pay stubs illustrating lost work wages
Sometimes, though, it is necessary to estimate the expected costs of things like physical therapy and long-term earning capacity well in advance of when they actually occur. This is where assistance from skilled legal counsel can prove especially vital to the success of your case.
Establishing a Fair Value for Non-Economic Losses
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, are compensatory damages that have purely subjective values that can only be established through qualitative evidence. The archetypal example of a non-economic loss is pain and suffering caused by a physical injury, but this category of damages also covers things like:
- Emotional distress
- Psychological trauma
- Lost overall quality of life
Assessing the value of non-economic damages in Philadelphia slip and fall cases involves equating non-economic damages to a specific type of economic harm—for example:
- The amount of money the injured person made in a normal workday prior to getting hurt and then multiplying that based on the amount of time the injured person will continue to be harmed by their accident
In other situations, it may be easier to simply multiply the total value of economic damages by a predetermined multiplier and declare that as a fair amount of recovery for non-economic harm.
Our Philadelphia Attorneys Can Help With Assessing Damages in a Slip and Fall Claim
No matter how or where your slip and fall accident occurred, the process of recovering financially from that accident’s negative effects can be far from simple. Not only can it be harder than you might expect to identify what losses you can and should seek compensation for, but it can be even harder to assign a fair financial value to those losses that account for every way they will interfere with your life.
Fortunately, you have professional legal help available with assessing damages in Philadelphia slip and fall claims, as well as with all other parts of the litigation process. Contact us today for a free consultation.
