There are three main types of compensation in personal injury cases: economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive damages. Economic damages compensate for the financial burdens you’ve incurred as a result of a car accident. These sorts of burdens are easily traceable to the accident and include medical expenses, lost wages, and household costs. Any medical costs you rack up can be compensated for in the form of economic damages. Treatments and services like ambulance transportation, inpatient stays, future clinical visits, physical or occupational therapy, laboratory tests, and medication are all considered medical expenses. Sometimes, injury victims can no longer perform their regular job duties due to their condition. If you cannot work, your attorney will calculate your lost wages, even if you’ve used vacation or sick leave to keep your paychecks coming. If your doctor doesn’t believe you’ll be able to return to work in your normal capacity for the foreseeable future, they’ll include those expenses in your claim as well. Victims might also seek outside help to handle household chores following an accident. For instance, they may contract a weekly maid service or hire a regular babysitter to care for young children while they recover. Your car accident lawyer can incorporate your growing household expenses into an economic damages claim. Non-economic damages are more subjective. They typically can’t be accounted for through receipts and bills but are estimated based on the extent of your injuries. To arrive at their estimate, your attorney may attempt to show that you’ve suffered emotional trauma or mental anguish stemming from your accident and are now afraid to drive. Similarly, catastrophic injuries may result in disability or disfigurement, which are other forms of non-economic suffering. If your case appears destined for court, you may start to hear talk of punitive damages. Courts award punitive damages, which are monetary consequences intended to punish the at-fault party if the defendant’s actions are determined to have been negligent.