When someone is Injured in a medical procedure due to negligence or mistakes made a medical professional, you may be able to recover a lot of the damage reimbursement you need and deserve afterward. A medical malpractice claim can cover anything from loss of income to loss of enjoyment of life looking forward to the future. If you have received an injury due to a medical malpractice or if a medical malpractice results in death, the family of the victim as well as the heirs can be the ones who recover damages.
General, Special, and Punitive Damages
In order to be awarded for damages, you must be able to prove that:
• The medical malpractice is what caused the damages and
• *You can place a price tag on the amount of damage you want to collect.
General Damages
General damages simply mean the cost of suffering and while it is real, it cannot be a definite price. Some examples of general damages would include:
• Physical and mental pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of future income
Every case is different and there are no certain rules that would help to form the exact amount that would be due to the injured party. In order to obtain a dollar amount, the patient and those in their life would need to show evidence that there is a personal level of pain and suffering that would result in loss of enjoyment of life. You may even have an expert testify and provide evidence that would back up the testimony that the injury has caused so many issues. If the patient is young, and will experience long term impairment, an expert may be called on to estimate the value of loss of earning too.
Special Damages
Special damages will cover the expenses that are caused and associated with the malpractice, such as missed work and medical expenses. While there may be a lot of guesswork to get the total, especially when predicting the future of expenses associated, they can get a general idea about how much an injury will end up cost an individual. The injury lawyer in Kitchener can predict loss of income based on the salary at the time of the accident as well as the number of hours the patient has worked in the last three to six months.
Punitive Damages
There are some circumstances that a patient can recover punitive damages. While the rules on this type of compensation can change from state to state, the general requirement is the same; the medical doctor must have known that they were behaving in a manner that was harmful. In order to be awarded for punitive damages, the judge or jury will need to view the documentation and be able to see that there Is a cause for punitive damages.