What Kind of Damages Can You Claim After a Car Accident in Louisiana?

The first priority of victims of a serious Louisiana car accident is to get the best medical treatment and to support one another. After a while, though, the question arises of how the victims and their loved ones can be compensated for what they are going through. Medical bills pile up, the car has been totaled, there is no income, and the process of healing and recovery is expected to be long and expensive. Provided that all the facts point towards the other party as being at fault, there are two types of compensatory damages that victims may claim.

Special damages

These are damages that can be expressed in monetary terms, and correspond to actual expenses or losses incurred. Typically, they include:

• Medical and hospitalization expenses;
• Wages and other professional income lost during incapacity to work;
• Costs to repair or replace property, such as the wrecked vehicle or other personal items;
• Costs of substitute transportation;
• Costs of at-home help, therapies and other support services.

General damages

General damages seek to compensate the victim for direct negative consequences of the accident, damages that cannot be expressed or evidenced in monetary terms. Common general damages are:

• Permanent disability or impairment;
• Disfigurement;
• Hard-to-predict future losses, such as loss of income, medical expenses, disability and adaptive services;
• Loss of consortium, which means the loss of the benefits of a relationship;
• Pain and suffering.

It takes a skilled and experienced personal injury attorney to determine what you can and should claim in general damages, based on your case, the court and jury, past awards in similar circumstances and the way the arguments are brought forward.

If you have been hurt in a car, truck or motorcycle accident caused by someone else, contact the New Orleans accident attorneys of the Young Firm for a FREE discussion of your case. Also order now our FREE lawyer book, A Guide To Steering Through a Serious Vehicle Accident in Louisiana.