How Much Money Can I Receive In A Personal Injury Case?

At Robert Bates & Associates, we focus our practice on representing people who have been seriously injured in negligence cases. We handle hundreds of cases involving car and truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian and bicycle accidents, and slip and fall cases. Because of our expertise in these types of cases, we often get questions about how much a particular case is worth. These types of questions are difficult because every case is different. The same type of injury might affect one person significantly more than another. For example, two people with the same injury might receive significantly different compensation because one person could continue to work through the injury but another person could not and had a lot of lost wages. The state of Tennessee, however, has placed limits on certain types of personal injury damages someone can recover.

Economic vs. Non-Economic Damages

There are two types of damages in personal injury cases: Economic and Non-Economic. The non-economic damages are those more commonly referred to as “pain and suffering” damages. There is no set formula to come up with a pain and suffering amount for any particular case. Every injury is different and it affects people differently. When injured by someone else’s negligence, people go through and experience pain differently. Economic damages are easier to calculate though. All you have to do is add up the numbers. Here is a list of potential economic damages from a standard personal injury case:

● Property damage

● Past due unpaid medical bills

● Future medical bills for likely treatment that will continue into the foreseeable future

● Past due lost wages due to not being able to work because of the injury and subsequent disability

● Future lost wages due to continuing disability as well as future lost earning capacity

● Out of pocket costs

● Home or automobile modifications due to an ongoing disability such as bathroom modifications or a ramp leading into a home

Caps on Non-Economic Damages

As mentioned, Tennessee camps non-economic damages or more commonly called pain and suffering damages. These are the damages that someone is entitled to receive due to the pain they suffered caused by the injuries, pain they suffered caused by the treatment necessary, the loss of life’s pleasures due to any disabilities, etc. But Tennessee, as do many other states, places limits or caps on these types of damages:

● $750,000: In most injury cases, pain and suffering damages are limited to $750,000. These are paid in addition to the full amount of economic damages.

● $1,000,000: The state does allow an additional $250,000 in non-economic damages in cases involving severe or permanent injury. In order to raise the cap to $1,000,000, the victim must have suffered paralysis from a spinal cord injury, severe burns, amputation, or death of a parent with an underage child.

● $300,000: If you are filing an injury or wrongful death claim against the State of Tennessee itself, you will only be able to collect $300,000 in total damages (both economic and non-economic).

● $500,000: Punitive damages that are awarded shall not exceed two times the total amount of compensatory (economic) damages awarded or $500,000, whichever is greater.

In the state of Tennessee, no matter how bad the pain and suffering gets and no matter how bad of a nightmare the plaintiff had to go through, the total in pain and suffering damages an individual will receive is $750,000. The best course to take if you or a family member has been seriously injured due to the negligence or carelessness of another is to contact an experienced personal injury attorney. Robert Bates & Associates have been representing seriously injured people in the Kingsport, Bristol, and Johnson City areas for several years. Contact us today for your free consultation.

Robert BatesRobert is a Kingsport trial lawyer who handles car, truck and motorcycle wreck cases across the Tri-Cities. Every client gets his cell number.