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Any resident of Ontario that has filed a personal injury claim can seek two types of compensation. One type fall under the heading of special damages. The second type falls under the heading of general damages. It is best to talk to a personal injury lawyer in Brantford about your case so that they can give you the right advice.
Special damages
This type of compensation covers the victim’s monetary losses. The amount paid for medical expenses would be included in the money used to cover the victim’s medical costs. Reimbursement for lost salary would also fall in this particular category.
General damages
Some of the harm done to the victim cannot be matched with a certain amount of money. The harm done to the victim cannot be corrected by paying a given amount of money. The victim’s pain and suffering falls under the heading of general damages.
The size of each compensation varies among the different victims
The amount of money awarded to the person that has filed a personal injury claim gets decided by a jury. The jury’s decision reflects the decision of the members of that legal body, following a consultation. The jurists consult about the answers to a series of questions.
What are the questions that have to be answered, following a consultation by members of the jury?
Was the defendant negligent, based on the presented evidence?
Did the defendant’s negligence harm the plaintiff, again, as judged by those that have studied the presented evidence?
What amount of money will fairly compensate the plaintiff for losses suffered, due to medical expenses? The members of the jury should have in front of them the amount the victim had been charged for various medical procedures and treatments.
What amount of money would represent fair compensation for the victim’s future expenses? The jury would need to receive some information from a professional in the field of medicine. Otherwise, the jurists would have no way of estimating the needs of the injured victim in the coming years.
What amount of money could be viewed as fair compensation for the loss of past wages, those lost following the accident?
How many dollars should the victim get paid for the loss of future earning potential? In order to answer this question, the jurors should have access to information supplied by an expert at economics. Such an expert can estimate what a given person’s salary would be at a future point in time.
Those are the sorts of questions that would be printed on a piece of paper and then given to the members of the jury, before they had gathered, in order to consult with each other. The jurists do not use any sort of formula; they simply work together, in order to determine what a fair compensation would be.