Special damages refer to specific monetary losses incurred due to an injury. These are tangible expenses that can be itemized and proven with receipts or invoices. In many cases, health care accounts for the lion's share of special damages, but loss of income (especially potential income) can also add up quickly.
A driver who causes a car accident, a trucking company that pressures its drivers to skip breaks, a doctor who makes a critical mistake during surgery, or a property owner who doesn't maintain safe land are examples of parties that could be held responsible for paying special damages to a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit.
To fully understand special damages, it's important to know the three types of personal injury damages and what they cover.As you can see, compensation for special damages could amount to a significant amount of money, depending on the severity of the injuries and the ongoing impact they may have on a person's life. In addition to special and general damages, other types of damages that may be considered in personal injury cases are punitive damages, which can be awarded for atrocious misconduct and are intended to punish the defendant and, in general, to deter others from engaging in similar conduct. Special damages compensate for tangible financial losses, while general damages compensate for intangible suffering and diminished quality of life. Both general and special damages are considered “compensatory damages” because they are intended to help cover losses associated with injury or death.
The above issues are made-up numbers for this blog, but they provide information on some of the categories that may be considered for special damages. While general damages cover non-monetary effects, including pain and suffering, special damages refer to quantifiable financial losses causally related to the injury. There are several calculators available; one is to use the “multiplier”, in which the total amount of special damages is multiplied by a multiplier, usually between 1.5 and 5, to estimate overall damages; in cases of serious injuries that leave the victim with a long-term disability or serious emotional trauma, higher multipliers are usually applied.