When you sustain injuries in a car or other motor vehicle crash, you have the right to receive compensation, i.e., money damages, for your injuries. FindLaw explains that, in general, you can recover two types of damages: economic and noneconomic.
Under New York’s no-fault law, however, you receive no-fault payments for your economic damages, but must file a separate lawsuit in order to recover your noneconomic damages.
Economic damages
Your economic damages include your medical expenses such as the following:
- Ambulance transport
- Emergency room care like injury assessment and diagnostic testing
- Hospital care and treatment like surgery
- Rehabilitation treatment like physical and occupational therapy
- Prescription medications
- Needed medical equipment like a wheelchair, walker, crutches, etc.
They also include the wages or salary you lose while you are off work recovering.
Keep in mind that your economic damages include your future medical expenses and future loss of income attributable to your injuries.
Noneconomic damages
Your noneconomic damages represent your more subjective, but nevertheless very real, losses, including the following:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental anguish and distress
- Emotional consequences such as depression
- Embarrassment over having to appear in public with disfiguring scars, a wheelchair, a prosthesis, etc.
- Loss of your overall enjoyment of life
In New York, your injuries must be serious or permanent, as defined by the no-fault statute, in order to recover these damages in your separate personal injury lawsuit against the negligent driver who caused your accident and hence your injuries.
Total recovery amount
Not surprisingly, the total amount of damages you can recover depends on the specific facts and circumstances surrounding your accident. It also depends on the amount of insurance coverage available and whether your own auto insurance policy includes underinsured motorist coverage.
