To better understand the types of damages you can sue for in a personal injury case, it’s important to know what a personal injury is and the purpose of a personal injury claim.
A personal injury is the specific harm—physical, mental, or emotional—that you suffer as a result of an accident or another person’s wrongful actions. It refers to the damage done to you as a person, such as broken bones, a brain injury, or emotional trauma, distinct from the damage to your property, like your car. Essentially, it is the human cost of someone else’s negligence, and it forms the entire basis for your legal claim.
A personal injury claim is a civil action that allows you, the victim, to hold the responsible party financially accountable for the harm they caused. The ultimate goal is to secure the financial compensation you need to cover your medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, and other losses, to help you rebuild your life. In the legal world, these losses are referred to as “damages.”
Our personal injury attorneys in Arlington, TX can help you understand your rights and pursue the full amount of compensation you deserve. There are different types of damages you can pursue in a personal injury claim under Texas law. Here’s a closer look at the most common types:
The Two Main Categories of Damages
In Texas, compensation in a personal injury case is generally divided into two primary categories: Economic Damages and Non-Economic Damages. Think of them as the tangible and the intangible costs of your injury. A third, rarer category, known as Exemplary (or Punitive) Damages, may also apply in specific, egregious cases.
Let’s break down what each of these means for you.
Economic Damages: The Calculable Financial Losses
Economic damages are the most straightforward type of compensation because they represent direct financial losses that can be calculated and proven with receipts, bills, and financial statements. These are the black-and-white numbers that form the foundation of your claim.
1. Medical Expenses (Past and Future)
This is often the largest and most critical component of an economic damages claim. An injury can trigger a cascade of medical costs that extend far beyond the initial emergency room visit. Your claim should account for every single penny of medical care related to the accident, including:
- Emergency Services: Ambulance transportation, emergency room treatment, and initial hospital admission.
- Hospital Stays: The cost of your room, board, and any treatments received during your stay.
- Surgical Procedures: The fees for the surgeon, anesthesiologist, operating room, and any necessary implants or hardware.
- Doctors’ Visits: Follow-up appointments with specialists like orthopedists, neurologists, or pain management doctors.
- Rehabilitation: Costs for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy to help you regain function.
- Prescription Medications: All medications prescribed to manage pain, prevent infection, or treat other conditions caused by the injury.
- Medical Devices: The cost of crutches, wheelchairs, braces, prosthetics, or other assistive equipment.
- In-Home Care: If your injuries are severe, you may require a home health aide to assist with daily activities.
- Future Medical Needs: This is a crucial element. A serious injury, like a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a spinal cord injury, will likely require a lifetime of care. Your claim must include a calculated projection of these future costs, which may involve life care planners and economic experts to determine the full, long-term financial impact.
It is vital to keep meticulous records of every bill, receipt, and explanation of benefits from your insurance company.
2. Lost Wages and Loss of Earning Capacity
When you are injured, your ability to earn a living is often immediately compromised. The damages related to your work and income fall into two distinct sub-categories:
- Lost Wages: This is the income you have already lost because you were unable to work while recovering. It can be calculated by multiplying your hourly or daily wage by the amount of time you missed. This includes not just your regular pay but also any missed overtime, bonuses, or commissions you would have reasonably earned.
- Loss of Earning Capacity: This is a more complex and forward-looking calculation. It represents the money you will lose in the future because your injuries have diminished your ability to do your job or any job. For example:
- A construction worker in Arlington who suffers a severe back injury in a truck accident on I-20 may no longer be able to perform physical labor. Their loss of earning capacity is the difference between what they would have earned in construction versus what they can now earn in a more sedentary, likely lower-paying, role.
- A surgeon who suffers a hand injury in a rideshare accident may lose the fine motor skills necessary for their profession, drastically reducing their future income potential.
Proving loss of earning capacity often requires testimony from vocational experts who can assess your skills, limitations, and job market realities, as well as economists who can project these losses over the course of your expected working life.
3. Property Damage
If your personal property was damaged or destroyed in the accident, you are entitled to compensation for its repair or replacement. The most common example is your vehicle after a car, truck, or motorcycle accident. This includes the cost to repair your car to its pre-accident condition or, if it’s declared a total loss, the fair market value of the vehicle right before the crash.
This can also include other valuable items that were damaged, such as a laptop, cell phone, or custom equipment in your vehicle.
4. Other Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Life doesn’t stop after an injury, but it does get more expensive. You can be reimbursed for other reasonable and necessary expenses you incurred as a direct result of the accident, such as:
- Transportation costs to and from medical appointments.
- The cost of modifying your home or vehicle to accommodate a disability (e.g., installing a wheelchair ramp or hand controls).
- The cost of hiring help for household chores, childcare, or yard work that you can no longer perform yourself.
Non-Economic Damages: The Human Cost of an Injury
While economic damages cover the bills, non-economic damages are meant to compensate you for the profound, personal, and often invisible ways the injury has impacted your life and well-being. These losses don’t come with a price tag, but they are just as real and devastating. In Texas, a jury is asked to use its judgment to assign a monetary value to these human costs.
1. Pain and Suffering
This is perhaps the most well-known type of non-economic damage. It encompasses the physical pain and the emotional distress you have endured since the accident and will likely continue to endure.
- Physical Pain: This includes the immediate pain from the injury itself, the pain from surgeries and medical treatments, and the chronic, ongoing pain that may become a permanent part of your life. It’s the constant ache, the sharp, stabbing sensations, and the discomfort that follows you day and night.
- Suffering: This refers to the emotional and mental side of the experience. It’s the fear you felt during the accident, the frustration of being unable to do simple things for yourself, and the general misery of being in a constant state of pain.
2. Mental Anguish
Mental anguish is a distinct category that focuses on the significant emotional trauma resulting from the injury. It goes beyond general suffering and includes diagnosable psychological conditions and severe emotional responses like:
- Depression
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can cause flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, especially when faced with reminders of the accident (like driving past the crash site on US-287).
- Grief and sorrow
- Loss of sleep (insomnia)
- Humiliation or embarrassment caused by the injury or its effects.
3. Physical Impairment
Physical impairment, also known as loss of enjoyment of life, compensates you for the inability to participate in activities and hobbies that once brought you joy. Your life has been limited by your injuries, and this damage category acknowledges that loss. Examples include:
- Being unable to play catch with your children or grandchildren.
- Losing the ability to garden, play a sport, or engage in a favorite hobby.
- Being unable to travel or participate in social activities with friends and family.
- The loss of the simple ability to go for a walk or exercise.
4. Disfigurement
If your injury resulted in permanent scarring, burns, amputation, or other visible changes to your appearance, you may be entitled to damages for disfigurement. This compensation acknowledges the humiliation, embarrassment, and emotional distress that comes from living with a permanent, visible reminder of your trauma.
5. Loss of Consortium
This is a specific claim that can be brought by the spouse of an injured person (and in some cases, by the children or parents of a victim in a wrongful death case). It is intended to compensate the family member for the loss of the positive aspects of the family relationship due to the injury. This can include the loss of:
- Companionship and society: The injured person may no longer be able to provide the same level of emotional support and companionship.
- Affection and intimacy: A serious injury can profoundly impact a couple’s physical relationship.
- Household services: The loss of the injured spouse’s contributions to chores, childcare, and home maintenance.
Exemplary (Punitive) Damages: Punishing Gross Negligence
In some rare and extreme cases, Texas law allows for a third category of damages: exemplary damages, more commonly known as punitive damages.
Unlike economic and non-economic damages, which are designed to compensate you for your losses, exemplary damages are intended to punish the defendant for their egregious behavior and to deter them and others from engaging in similar conduct in the future.
You cannot get exemplary damages in a standard negligence case. Under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, they are only available if you can prove by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from:
- Fraud: Intentional deceit.
- Malice: A specific intent to cause substantial injury or harm.
- Gross Negligence: An act or omission involving an extreme degree of risk, where the defendant had actual, subjective awareness of the risk but proceeded anyway with conscious indifference to the rights, safety, or welfare of others.
A classic example in a personal injury context would be a drunk driving accident where the at-fault driver was not just over the legal limit but was driving recklessly at excessively high speeds in a residential area, showing a complete and conscious disregard for the safety of everyone around them.
It is important to know that Texas law places caps on the amount of exemplary damages that can be awarded.
You Deserve to Understand the Full Value of Your Claim
After a devastating accident in Tarrant County, the insurance company for the at-fault party is not on your side. Their goal is to minimize their payout by downplaying your injuries, questioning your pain, and offering a quick, lowball settlement that may not even cover your initial medical bills, let alone the lifetime of consequences you may face.
They count on you being overwhelmed and unaware of the full scope of damages you are legally entitled to recover under Texas law. They hope you don’t realize that your future medical needs, your diminished ability to earn a living, and your profound emotional trauma all have value.
But they do. Your pain is real. Your losses are significant. And you have the right to demand justice.
Branch & Dhillon: Aggressive Representation and a Compassionate Approach for Injured Texans
The most critical step in pursuing compensation through a personal injury case is having a powerful advocate in your corner who will fight to ensure you recover every single dollar you are owed. At Branch & Dhillon, we are that advocate.
Founding partners Jas Dhillon and Blake Branch built our firm on a dual promise: to provide a compassionate approach to our clients and to deliver the aggressive representation they need to stand up to powerful insurance corporations. We understand the physical, emotional, and financial toll an injury takes on you and your family. Our job is to lift that burden from your shoulders, handle the legal complexities, and build an undeniable case that reflects the true value of your suffering.
We are not a settlement mill that takes the first offer. We are experienced Texas trial lawyers who prepare every case as if it’s going to court. Insurance companies know our reputation for relentless advocacy. They know we will not back down, and that we have the resources, knowledge, and determination to take the fight as far as it needs to go to secure justice for you.
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a car, truck, rideshare, or any other type of accident in Arlington, Fort Worth, or anywhere in Tarrant County, you do not have to face this fight alone. You need a team that is committed to your recovery and your future.
Contact Branch & Dhillon today at (817) 533-3430 or through our online form for a free, no-obligation consultation. Let us listen to your story, explain your rights, and show you how we can fight for you. You pay absolutely nothing unless we get money for you.