Many States have placed statutory limits on the amount of non-economic damages that may be awarded to an injured patient by a judge or jury in a successful medical malpractice case. The medical malpractice limits on non-economic damage award limits vary from state to state.
How Award Caps Impact a Patient's Case
Considering the potenital effects of award limitations on the possible final judgment award may be important to a claimant who ultimately is successful in proving medical negligence against a physician or healthcare provider. Claimants may be awarded compensatory and punitive damages in a medical malpractice action. Those damages may be economic and non-economic. Damage limitations concerning non-economic damages impact a patient’s case by reducing the amount of compensation allowed to be awarded for such things as pain and suffering and loss of consortium with family members.
Economic v. Non-Economic Damages
Economic Damages
In a medical malpractice action economic damages refer to compensation for actual monetary losses suffered by the injured patient due to the injury. This type of damage will include medical bills, lost wages, lost future wages, pharmaceutical bills, home nursing care bills, injury related medical equipment and disability accommodation equipment, funeral costs, and legal fees and legal costs. This kind of list of expenses can be almost endless in today’s healthcare system and the total can be extremely impressive and frightening if you are the one responsible for payment of those bills.
Non-Economic Damages
In contrast, non-economic damages are compensatory amounts of money awarded to an injured patient or his family for unquantifiable losses such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium with wife and children and other family members, emotional suffering and injury and punitive elements compensating for extremely severe and reckless acts of professional negligence.
Impact of Legal Fee Awards
Another element that may impact adversly on a patient’s medical malpractice case is that a number of States have enacted statutes or court rule establishing a limit or sliding scale limitation on contingency fees lawyers may collect from clients filing a medical malpractice action. Legal fees are admittedly an economic damage which are not generally limit ed but which some States have chosen to place boundaries on.
Getting Legal Help
If you or a member of your family is considering filing a medical malpractice action against a healthcare provider it may be important to contact a medical malpractice attorney in order to access expert advice and direction concerning your rights concerning your State’s imposed limits on a possible award of non-economic damages if successful in proving injury arising due to malpractice.
