If you suffer a severe injury due to the negligence of someone else, you will likely have to go to court to seek damages.
You can ask the court to award you money to pay for the financial losses associated with your injury, and you also may request damages for other losses, such as pain and suffering.
Limits on damages
The law places a cap or limit on how much an award can be for damages depending on the type of damages. For economic damages, which are financial losses, there is no limit. You can seek the exact amount of your loss. This is common because you can easily prove how much your financial losses were.
Noneconomic damages are harder to prove and cover areas such as pain and suffering and loss of consortium. You cannot get more than $750,000 in noneconomic compensation. Regardless of the number of defendants, the law limits these damages to $750,000.
The exception
The only exception to the limits rule is when you prove you have a catastrophic injury. In that case, the noneconomic damage limit increases to $1 million. However, the law has set what constitutes a catastrophic injury. You must have a severe spinal cord injury that leaves you without the use of your legs or legs and arms, third-degree burns that cover at least 40% of your body or face or amputation of both feet or hands or one of each.
Keeping limits in mind will help you as you plan your case and determine what you would like to seek in damages.
