Personal Injury Damages FAQ

Economic damages, also called special damages, are the quantifiable financial losses you suffer as a direct result of your injury. These damages have specific dollar values that can be calculated and documented with bills, receipts, and financial records. In California personal injury cases, economic damages encompass several categories of loss.

Medical expenses form a major component, including past and future costs for hospital stays, emergency room visits, surgeries, prescription medications, diagnostic tests, physical therapy, rehabilitation, medical equipment like wheelchairs or braces, and ongoing medical care. Lost wages compensate you for income lost while recovering, calculated from your regular pay rate and hours or days missed from work. Loss of earning capacity addresses the long-term impact on your ability to earn if your injury causes permanent limitations.

Property damage covers repair or replacement costs for vehicles, personal belongings, or other property damaged in the incident. Out-of-pocket expenses include transportation to medical appointments, home modifications needed due to disability, and hiring help for household tasks you can no longer perform yourself. All economic damages require thorough documentation, and future losses often require expert testimony from economists or vocational specialists.

Non-economic damages, also called general damages, compensate for intangible losses that don't have a specific dollar value or market price. These damages address the human impact of your injuries beyond mere financial loss. In California, non-economic damages include physical pain and suffering experienced from the injury and during recovery, emotional distress such as anxiety, depression, fear, and psychological trauma, loss of enjoyment of life when injuries prevent you from participating in activities you previously enjoyed, and inconvenience caused by your injuries.

Additional non-economic damages include disfigurement and scarring that affects your appearance and self-image, loss of consortium which compensates a spouse for the impact on the marital relationship including loss of companionship, affection, and intimate relations, and loss of companionship in wrongful death cases.

Because these damages are inherently subjective, calculating them involves different approaches. The multiplier method multiplies your economic damages by a factor between 1.5 and 5 (or higher for severe cases) based on injury severity, permanence, and impact on daily life. The per diem method assigns a daily dollar value to your pain and suffering, then multiplies by the number of days affected. California juries have significant discretion in awarding non-economic damages, guided by CACI jury instructions, and there's no formula they must follow.

In most California personal injury cases, there is no statutory cap on pain and suffering damages, allowing juries to award whatever amount they deem fair and reasonable based on the evidence presented. Pain and suffering is a broad category of non-economic damages that encompasses both the physical pain you experience from your injuries and the mental and emotional anguish, anxiety, depression, and trauma that accompany them.

Several factors influence the amount of pain and suffering damages, including the severity of your injuries and whether they're temporary or permanent, the intensity and duration of pain you experienced, the length of your recovery period, how your injuries affect your daily activities and quality of life, whether you suffered visible scarring or disfigurement, your age and pre-injury health, and the credibility of your testimony and supporting evidence.

California courts have upheld substantial pain and suffering awards when supported by compelling evidence. However, you should know that medical malpractice cases are subject to special limits under MICRA (Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act). Following the passage of AB 35 in 2022, non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases are capped at $350,000 for cases not involving death and $500,000 for wrongful death cases, with these amounts increasing annually until 2033 when they reach $750,000 and $1,000,000 respectively. For all other personal injury cases, thoroughly documenting the impact of your injuries on every aspect of your life is crucial to maximizing your pain and suffering recovery.

California generally does not impose caps on damages in most personal injury cases, allowing injured plaintiffs to receive full compensation for both their economic and non-economic losses. This distinguishes California from many other states that have enacted tort reform measures limiting damage awards. However, several important exceptions and limitations exist that may affect your case.

Medical malpractice cases face the most significant restriction under MICRA (Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act), originally enacted in 1975. As amended by AB 35 in 2022, non-economic damages are capped at $350,000 for cases not involving death and $500,000 for wrongful death cases. These caps increase by $40,000 and $50,000 respectively each year until 2033, when they'll reach $750,000 and $1,000,000. Claims against government entities may face certain procedural requirements and limitations under the California Government Code, though damage caps are limited.

Punitive damages, while not capped by California statute, must satisfy constitutional due process requirements established by the U.S. Supreme Court in BMW of North America v. Gore and State Farm v. Campbell. Courts typically require punitive damages to bear a reasonable relationship to compensatory damages, with single-digit ratios being more likely to survive constitutional scrutiny. Insurance policy limits may also effectively cap recovery when the defendant lacks personal assets. California voters have consistently rejected ballot initiatives attempting to impose broader damage caps, preserving injured plaintiffs' right to full compensation.

Lost wages and loss of earning capacity are both categories of economic damages in California personal injury cases, but they compensate for fundamentally different types of income loss and require different methods of proof. Understanding the distinction is important because loss of earning capacity can often represent the largest component of damages in serious injury cases.

Lost wages, sometimes called lost earnings, reimburse you for the actual income you lost from the date of injury until the time of settlement or trial. This is a relatively straightforward calculation based on your pay rate, hours or days missed from work, lost bonuses or commissions, used vacation or sick time, and similar concrete losses. Documentation includes pay stubs, tax returns, W-2 forms, employer verification letters, and similar records showing your pre-injury earnings and time missed.

Loss of earning capacity, in contrast, compensates for the reduction in your ability to earn money in the future due to permanent injuries or disabilities. This isn't just about whether you can return to your old job—it addresses your overall capacity to generate income over your remaining work life. Calculation involves comparing your pre-injury earning capacity (not just actual earnings) to your diminished post-injury capacity, considering factors like your education, training, skills, work experience, age, life expectancy, and how your injury limits your occupational options. Even if you return to work at the same salary, you may still recover for diminished earning capacity if your injury limits future advancement opportunities or forces you into a different career path with lower potential earnings.

Punitive damages, also called exemplary damages, may be awarded in California personal injury cases but only when the defendant's conduct rises to a level of culpability far beyond ordinary negligence. Unlike compensatory damages that aim to make the plaintiff whole, punitive damages serve to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar conduct in the future. They're reserved for the most egregious cases.

Under California Civil Code Section 3294, punitive damages require proof by clear and convincing evidence—a higher standard than the preponderance of evidence required for compensatory damages—that the defendant acted with oppression, fraud, or malice. Malice means conduct intended to cause injury to the plaintiff, or despicable conduct carried on with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others. Oppression means despicable conduct that subjects a person to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of their rights. Fraud involves intentional misrepresentation, deceit, or concealment of material facts.

Examples of conduct that may support punitive damages include driving drunk and causing an accident, intentional assaults, corporations concealing known product dangers, extreme recklessness showing conscious disregard for safety, and fraudulent business practices causing harm. While California doesn't cap punitive damages by statute, constitutional due process limits apply. The U.S. Supreme Court has indicated that punitive damage awards exceeding single-digit ratios to compensatory damages raise due process concerns. Courts also consider the defendant's financial condition, as punitive damages should sting enough to punish and deter without being financially ruinous.

Medical liens can significantly impact how much money you actually take home from your personal injury settlement, making it essential to understand and plan for these obligations from the beginning of your case. A lien is a legal claim against your settlement proceeds that must be satisfied before you receive your share. In California, multiple parties may assert liens on your recovery.

Hospital liens under California Civil Code Sections 3045.1-3045.6 allow hospitals that provided emergency and ongoing treatment to claim reimbursement from your settlement. These liens attach to your cause of action and must be satisfied from any recovery. Health insurance companies typically have subrogation rights under their policy terms, allowing them to seek reimbursement for medical payments they made on your behalf. Medicare and Medi-Cal have particularly strong lien rights backed by federal and state law, and failing to properly reimburse these programs can result in serious consequences.

Workers' compensation carriers can assert liens for any benefits paid if you also pursue a third-party claim. Private medical providers may require you to sign a lien agreement before treating you on credit, essentially agreeing to pay them from your settlement. Before accepting any settlement offer, you must identify all liens and calculate how they affect your net recovery. California law provides some protections—the "made whole" doctrine may reduce or eliminate certain liens if your settlement doesn't fully compensate you. Lien amounts are often negotiable, and skilled negotiation can substantially increase your take-home recovery.

When a family member dies due to another party's negligence or wrongful conduct in California, surviving family members may bring a wrongful death claim to recover damages for their losses. California law provides for two separate but related causes of action: a wrongful death claim for the survivors' own losses and a survival action for damages the deceased could have recovered.

Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.60, those eligible to bring a wrongful death claim include the surviving spouse or domestic partner, surviving children, and if there's no surviving spouse or children, those who would be entitled to inherit under California's intestate succession laws plus anyone who was financially dependent on the deceased. Recoverable wrongful death damages include the financial support the deceased would have provided over their expected lifetime, the reasonable value of household services the deceased would have performed, loss of gifts and benefits the deceased would have given, funeral and burial expenses, and importantly, non-economic damages for loss of the deceased's love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support.

A separate survival action under Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.30 allows the deceased's estate to recover damages that the deceased could have recovered if they had survived, including their pain and suffering from the time of injury until death and any economic damages they suffered. California does not cap wrongful death damages in most cases, allowing full recovery for these devastating losses. However, medical malpractice wrongful death cases are subject to MICRA's cap on non-economic damages.

Calculating future medical expenses in California personal injury cases requires establishing both that future treatment is reasonably certain to be necessary and determining its probable cost. This represents one of the more complex aspects of damages calculation, particularly in cases involving serious or permanent injuries that will require ongoing care.

To prove future medical needs, you'll typically need expert testimony from treating physicians or medical specialists who can explain the nature of your injuries, the treatment you'll require, the expected duration of care, and your overall prognosis. The testimony should establish with reasonable medical probability—not mere possibility—that you'll need specific types of future care. Common future medical expenses include additional surgeries, ongoing prescription medications, physical therapy and rehabilitation, psychological or psychiatric treatment, medical equipment and assistive devices, home healthcare services, and for catastrophic injuries, comprehensive life care plans that address all aspects of future needs.

Establishing the cost of future care requires additional expert testimony from medical billing specialists, life care planners, or economists who can research current costs for needed services and project how those costs will change over time. Because future medical damages are awarded as a lump sum paid today, proper calculation must account for present value—the amount that, if invested today, would grow to cover future expenses as they arise. Insurance companies aggressively dispute future medical projections, making thorough documentation and credible expert testimony crucial to your recovery.

The collateral source rule is an important legal doctrine that generally prevents defendants in personal injury cases from reducing their liability by pointing to payments you received from independent sources like your own insurance. The underlying principle is that a wrongdoer should not benefit from the injured party's foresight in obtaining insurance or from benefits provided by third parties unrelated to the defendant.

Under the common law collateral source rule in California, if you're injured and your health insurance pays $50,000 in medical bills, the defendant cannot argue that your damages should be reduced by that amount. You may still claim the full value of your medical treatment as damages, even though you didn't personally pay that amount out of pocket. The rationale is twofold: defendants shouldn't get a windfall from victims' insurance, and plaintiffs who paid premiums for insurance coverage should receive its benefit.

However, California has modified this rule in specific contexts. In medical malpractice cases, California Civil Code Section 3333.1 allows defendants to introduce evidence of collateral source payments to the jury, and the plaintiff can then introduce evidence of amounts paid to secure those benefits (like insurance premiums). The jury then determines how to account for this information. In non-medical malpractice personal injury cases, the traditional rule applies more strongly. It's important to understand that while the collateral source rule may protect your damage recovery from the defendant, you'll likely need to reimburse your health insurer through subrogation or deal with other liens. Strategic decisions about how medical bills are paid can significantly impact your ultimate net recovery.