When can I sue for punitive damages?
When can I sue for punitive damages?
As such, punitive damages are usually reserved for cases where the defendant’s conduct is beyond merely negligent or intentional; the conduct must be reckless, malicious, fraudulent, wanton, outrageous, or otherwise more deserving of punishment in the eyes of the judge or jury.
What damages are available in tort actions?
Damages: An Overview Generally, there are two types of damages: compensatory and punitive. (The term “damages” typically includes both categories, but the term, “actual damages” is synonymous with compensatory damages, and excludes punitive damages.)
What are punitive damages in a civil case?
Punitive damages are legal recompense that a defendant found guilty of committing a wrong or offense is ordered to pay on top of compensatory damages. They are awarded by a court of law not to compensate injured plaintiffs but to punish defendants whose conduct is considered grossly negligent or intentional.
What are damages awarded?
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss.
What are future damages?
Future damages are intended to compensate for every valid future injury or loss you will sustain – the medical bills, the lost earnings, the physical pain, the mental anguish – everything.
How is pain and suffering calculated in the future?
Sometimes, insurance companies use multipliers to determine pain and suffering. The multiplier ranges from 1 to 4 (sometimes more). They multiply this by the number of actual damages, including past and future damages to arrive at a total pain and suffering amount.
Can you sue for future damages?
California law allows a plaintiff to recover damages for “lost earning capacity” in a personal injury case. Lost earning capacity compensates the plaintiff for work-related income that is reasonably certain to be lost in the future as the result of an accident or other wrongful act.
