Intentional Torts
In personal injury law, intentional tort requires that the at-fault party willfully caused the injury. Though it is common for people to instinctively associate this willfulness with aggressive physical harm, such direct willfulness is not necessary to implicate intentional tort. Defendants can also be found liable in intentional tort for willful negligence and willful ignorance leading to injury.
Negligent Torts
Negligent torts are perhaps the most common type of personal injury claims. Under a theory of negligence, the at-fault party is liable for your injury if they owed you a duty of care, that duty of care was breached, and said breach substantially caused the injury. Negligence does not require willfulness or intention. For example, in an auto accident case, though the at-fault driver might not have intended to hurt you, his unsafe driving would still make him potentially liable for your damages under a theory of negligence.
Strict Liability
In a strict liability case, the defendant is liable for your damages even if they did not willfully inflict the harm upon you, intend to cause harm, or negligently cause harm. All that you have to show in a strict liability case is that the defendant is substantially responsible for your injuries. The most common strict liability cases typically involve product liability (for example, if your toaster explodes and burns your arm, you might be able to bring a product liability claim), but a personal injury claim can also be brought under a theory of strict liability for animal bites and for injuries due to a defendant’s ultrahazardous activities.
Similarly, the damages aspect of a personal injury case can be broadly separated into three categories: 1) special damages (economic), 2) general damages (noneconomic), and 3) punitive damages.
Special Damages (Economic)
Special damages – otherwise known as economic damages – are the out-of-pocket expenses suffered by the victim as a result of the injury. They are easily identifiable, measurable, and generally financial in nature. Importantly, special damages are objective, not subjective, and therefore tend to be less speculative than general, noneconomic damages.
General Damages (Noneconomic)
General damages – otherwise known as noneconomic damages – are more subjective, more speculative. They account for the emotional or psychological ramifications of the injury, as well as the pain and suffering resulting from the injury. General damages are not easily measurable, and under California personal injury law, there is no standard damages values for various general damages issues (such as pain and suffering). As such, it is important to hire a skilled personal injury attorney to accurately assess the value of your general damages and argue the same.
The following may be considered in assessing one’s total general damages. It is not an exhaustive list.
Emotional Distress
This is quite a broad category and may include:
- Feelings such as embarrassment, public humiliation, anxiety, grief, anger
- Physical pain and suffering
- Disability and impairment effects on quality-of-life
- General quality-of-life issues
- Loss of companionship/consortium. This is available as a damages claim for surviving family members (for example, a husband who loses his wife to an auto accident may be entitled to loss of consortium general damages). Plaintiffs are entitled to general damages in all personal injury actions, but may only be able to assert a legitimate claim as to certain general damages (for example, a single woman who is injured falling down faulty stairs at a restaurant may be entitled to damages for pain and suffering, but may not be entitled to damages based on loss of consortium or loss of companionship [as the fall was not fatal and, further, only a surviving family member or spouse can claim loss of consortium/companionship]).
Punitive Damages
Cases involving punitive damages are sometimes responsible for extremely high damage awards (punitive damages are calculated by multiplying the compensatory damages – the special damages and general damages total – by a factor to be determined by the court). Unlike special damages or general damages, punitive damages are not meant to compensate the victim of an injury. Punitive damages are awarded for the public purpose of punishing the at-fault party when they have engaged in particularly bad behavior. The high damage totals in punitive damages cases are thus meant to discourage similar bad behavior in society as a whole. Punitive damages are fairly uncommon in personal injury law, as the plaintiff has to prove not only that the defendant(s) acted willfully, but also that they did so in a particularly malicious, wanton, or reckless manner.
Damage Limitations
Depending on your personal injury claim, the total damages award may be limited to some degree.
In California, medical malpractice damages are capped by the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Essentially, MICRA caps a medical malpractice plaintiff’s potential general damages (noneconomic) at $250,000 if the malpractice claim is based on negligence. This is a significant limitation, as special damages may be low, and thus a medical malpractice plaintiff may have to rely on general, noneconomic damages. Medical malpractice cases are also notoriously expensive to try, as they involve numerous expensive experts and juries tend to be biased towards educated medical professionals in negligence actions (i.e., juries tend to trust that the decisions made by medical professionals are by default reasonable). Because of the inherent difficulty and expense of trying a medical malpractice case, in combination with the MICRA damages cap, many attorneys avoid taking on personal injury cases involving negligence-based medical malpractice claims.
California law also places a general damages (noneconomic) cap on uninsured drivers, even if the uninsured driver is not at-fault. If you are an uninsured driver, you are therefore at a significant disadvantage when bringing a personal injury action, as you will be unable to obtain compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress, etc., which often comprise significant portions of one’s total damages award.