Personal Injury Attorneys Serving The St. Petersburg Area

Personal Injury Attorney St. Petersburg FL

The Difference between Economic and Non-Economic Damages – A St Petersburg, FL, Personal Injury Attorney Explains

When you hire a personal injury attorney – in St. Petersburg, Florida, or any other city – you do so because you’ve been badly hurt in an accident through no fault of your own and require professional help. One of the most important responsibilities of your “P.I.” attorney is to make sure that you receive fair compensation for your injuries/losses in the form of monetary damages. Whether you were involved in a car crash, experienced a nasty slip and fall at a store, or feel that you might be the victim of medical malpractice, you deserve financial compensation, and a personal injury attorney is someone who can help you get it.

There are two types of damages in personal injury cases:

  • Economic damages – These cover actual monetary losses that are directly associated with your accident. Compensation for economic damages can include money to pay for medical care, property damage, lost wages, and loss of future earning capacity.
  • Non-economic damages – These cover non-monetary losses and are frequently referred to as damages for pain and suffering. Lifelong pain, mental distress, public humiliation, bodily scarring, permanent disability, and damage to one’s reputation are all grounds for an award of non-economic damages.

A third category of damages – punitive damages – is relatively rare in personal injury cases but nonetheless worth discussing. Punitive damages are limited to cases where an injury occurred as a result of intentional misconduct or gross negligence. They are intended to punish a defendant and deter such behavior from happening in the future.

For more information on the different types of damages that may be available to you if you’ve been injured, contact a personal injury attorney at the St. Petersburg, FL, law firm of Reeder & Nussbaum, P.A.

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