You will incur many losses after suffering an injury. These losses may have a clear monetary value. For example, you might miss three weeks of work after breaking your arm in a car accident. You know how much you would have earned over those three weeks.
Economic losses are the financial costs and expenses resulting from someone else’s negligent or wrongful actions. You can pursue compensation for these losses through a personal injury claim. Recovering your full economic losses will put you into the same financial position you would have been in without your accident.
What Are Economic Losses?
Economic losses encompass all the costs and expenses you incurred due to the other party’s wrongful or negligent acts. An expense or cost qualifies as an economic loss if you paid it or are legally obligated to pay.
For example, suppose that you visited a doctor after your accident. You paid a $40 copayment required by your health insurer. The doctor also sent you a bill for $150 for X-rays that were not covered by your plan. Both costs qualify as economic losses whether you paid the $150 medical bill or not. You can include it in your injury claim since you are legally obligated to pay it.
Economic losses also include unrealized income. You can include your lost wages if you lost wages because you missed work while recovering. Similarly, business owners can often include a reasonable calculation of lost profits for work they had to turn away due to their injuries.
You must show that the at-fault party’s acts caused any losses you include in your claim. Causation requires two elements. First, the loss must be the logical and natural result of the other party’s negligent or wrongful act. Lawyers refer to this as cause-in-fact.
Suppose that you fell and broke your arm when a bus driver jumped the curb. The bus driver’s carelessness was the cause of the bus accident, and your arm fracture was the logical and natural result of it.
Causation also includes a concept called proximate cause. This doctrine limits the scope of negligence claims to the reasonably foreseeable results of the other party’s acts. Thus, the expenses must be the type of loss that someone would reasonably expect to occur, given the other party’s actions.
Examples Of Economic Losses
Economic losses can take many forms in a personal injury claim, including the following:
Medical Expenses
You can seek compensation for the following medical expenses:
- Appointment fees
- Diagnostic testing
- Hospitalization
- Medication
- Ambulance transportation
- Surgery costs
- Physical therapy
- Mental health counseling
- In-home nursing
You can typically include the cost of any past or future medical care intended to repair, reduce, or lessen an injury or condition caused by your traumatic incident. This broad definition includes any treatment for mental and emotional injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lost Income
Your economic losses include any money you failed to earn due to restrictions and disabilities imposed by your injuries. These limitations include mental disabilities. Thus, you can include the wages you lost while you recovered from a concussion that affected your thinking and memory.
You can also include a reduction in your income from taking light duty while you recover. Suppose that you normally work as a truck driver, but you cannot drive while you recover from a broken leg, so your employer reassigns you to work in the office at reduced pay. You can include the difference in pay as an economic loss.
The same idea applies to future earnings. Perhaps you have suffered a long-term disability that forces you to change jobs, reduce your hours, or stop working. The diminishment in your future earning capacity qualifies as an economic loss.
Out-Of-Pocket Expenses
Out-of-pocket expenses include any amounts you paid as a result of your injuries. Thus, your injury claim can include the cost of a sling and a bottle of over-the-counter pain medication from the local drug store.
Replacement Services Costs
If your injuries prevented you from performing your normal household activities, you can seek compensation for the amounts you pay for replacement services. Examples of these costs include the money you pay for the following:
- Childcare
- Home maintenance
- Yard care
- Transportation
- Cleaning
- Cooking
You can only include amounts incurred due to your injuries. If you had a cleaning service before your injuries, you might not be able to include the cost in your claim because the accident did not cause it.
Documenting Your Economic Losses
You must prove the value of your economic losses in your claim. Specifically, you will include the following medical documents with your insurance claim or lawsuit:
- Bank statements
- Credit card records
- Receipts
- Pay stubs
- Time cards
- Medical bills
Importantly, these documents are admissible in court as business records. Thus, the jury can use them to calculate your losses rather than guessing the amounts.
Legal Claims To Recover Economic Losses
Understanding and documenting economic losses aims to recover full compensation for your injuries and reimburse you for your losses. Consult a lawyer at Eason Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers at (314) 932-1066 to understand the process for using your records to pursue legal claims against the at-fault party and their insurer.