Legal Definitions - personal injury recovery

Personal injury recovery refers to the financial compensation an individual receives after suffering harm or injury due to another party's negligence or wrongful action.

This compensation aims to cover various losses, broadly categorized as:

• Economic damages: These are quantifiable financial losses that can be calculated. Examples include medical bills (hospital stays, doctor visits, medication, therapy), lost wages (income missed due to inability to work), and loss of future earning capacity (if the injury permanently affects one's ability to earn a living).
• Non-economic damages: These are less tangible losses that are harder to assign a precise monetary value but significantly impact the injured person's life. Examples include physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Punitive damages: In some cases, particularly where the at-fault party's conduct was extremely reckless, malicious, or intentional, a court might award punitive damages. These are not meant to compensate the victim for losses but rather to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar behavior in the future.

Here are a few examples illustrating personal injury recovery:

• Imagine a pedestrian, Sarah, is walking in a crosswalk when a distracted driver, Mark, runs a red light and hits her. Sarah sustains a broken leg, requires surgery, and misses several weeks of work during her recovery. She also experiences significant pain and emotional trauma from the incident. Sarah's personal injury recovery would include compensation for her medical expenses (economic), the income she lost from being unable to work (economic), and the physical pain and emotional distress she endured (non-economic) due to Mark's negligent driving.

• Consider David, who visits a local restaurant and slips on a patch of spilled water that an employee failed to clean up for an extended period, despite being aware of it. David falls and suffers a severe back injury, requiring ongoing physical therapy and limiting his ability to participate in his favorite hobbies, like gardening and playing with his grandchildren. David's personal injury recovery would cover his medical treatment costs (economic), any future therapy expenses (economic), and compensation for his pain, discomfort, and the diminished quality of life resulting from his injury (non-economic) caused by the restaurant's negligence in maintaining a safe environment.