If a preventable accident in California leaves you with disfigurement, this type of injury can have an enormous impact on the rest of your life. While no dollar amount may equate to your pain, suffering and lost quality of life caused by a disfiguring injury, learning the true value of your personal injury claim and how to calculate damages can help you achieve justice.
Economic Damages
An injury that ultimately leaves you with disfigurement will likely cause significant medical expenses. You might need multiple revision surgeries, for example, or have to undergo months or years of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Your past, current and future foreseeable medical expenses are a claimable type of damage during an Orange County personal injury claim. Other economic damages you may be able to list include lost wages and lost future capacity to earn. If your disfiguring injury causes a disability, such as severe burns, a loss of vision or hearing, the loss of a limb, or the loss of an important bodily function, this could prevent you from obtaining gainful employment in the future. Lost income and future earnings are compensable economic damages.
Non-Economic Damages
A permanent disfigurement can have substantial effects on your appearance, self-esteem, self-confidence, and quality or enjoyment of life. In personal injury law, these are known as “non-economic damages.” They are also called general damages, intangible losses, and pain and suffering. Disfigurement can cause the following types of non-economic damages:
- Physical pain
- Chronic or ongoing pain
- Emotional harm or distress
- Mental anguish
- Psychological trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Depression or anxiety
- Reduced self-esteem
- Social withdrawal
- Diminished enjoyment of life
If someone else is responsible for causing your disfigurement, you have the right to hold this person or party accountable for your related losses. This includes the non-economic damages you have and will continue to face due to your disfiguring injury or disability.
How Are Disfigurement Damages Calculated?
A personal injury claim attempts to make an accident victim whole again by providing financial compensation for various losses. Calculating economic damages uses hard numbers and data from related bills and expenses. Non-economic damages for disfigurement, however, are more difficult to place a number on. There is no one-size-fits-all answer or standard equation used to calculate non-economic damages for disfigurement. However, one common calculation used is to multiply the total amount of economic damages by a number between 1.5 and 5 that is reasonable based on the level of the plaintiff’s disfigurement or pain and suffering. This is called the Multiplier Method. Factors often involved in the decision-making for a non-economic damage award include the severity of the injury, extent of the disfigurement, effects that it has had on the victim’s life, the victim’s age and lifestyle, the location of the disfigurement on the body, whether it is temporary or permanent, and the psychological impact it has had on the victim.
How to Seek Maximum Compensation for Disfigurement
Suffering a disfiguring injury can put your life on a path that you never anticipated. Accepting what happened and moving forward can be possible when you get justice. You have the right to hold someone accountable for causing your permanent scarring or disfigurement. With help from the right personal injury attorney, you can file a claim that seeks fair damages for the full extent of your losses as a victim of disfigurement. To discuss the potential value of your claim and find out what you can do to maximize its value, contact the award-winning legal team at Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian for a free case review.