Types of Compensation in a Product Liability Case

Answer:

People often wonder what type of compensation is available to an individual who’s been injured in a product liability case. The answer is that the damages or the compensation that an individual can pursue in a product liability case is pretty much the same as for any personal injury case. The following is a list of the types of compensation that is typically involved in a product liability case.
First and the most obvious type of damage or compensation that you would pursue would be recovery of medical expenses that you incurred as a result of being injured as a result of a product failure. In some cases, individuals will sustain injuries that require ongoing medical care. In those cases, there will be medical expenses that are incurred from the time of the event to the time of trial. In addition to that, there will be ongoing medical expenses into the future and you would pursue the recovery of both. Medical expenses are the most obvious form of compensation that you would pursue in a product liability case.

Some people are unable to work due to the severity of their injury. Those individuals would claim a loss of income. Again, some individuals are only temporarily displaced from their work. Their loss of income may be of a shorter duration. You would pursue the recovery of loss of income from the time of the accident up through the time that you’re able to return to work. Other individuals may have injuries that are so severe that they simply can’t return to work at all or can’t return to the same form of work they were doing before because of the severity of their injury. Those individuals may have claims that involve losses extending over the course of their remaining work life. You can understand from that answer that the claims for loss of income can vary dramatically from case to case and depend on both the severity of the injury and its impact on your ability to work. Loss of income related to your injury is certainly another very common form of compensation that is pursued in a product liability case.

All product liability cases involve a claim for pain and suffering. Pain and suffering is a type of claim that is made to compensate individuals for, not only the physical pain involved with their injury and the suffering that they experienced with their injury, but also it refers to their displacement from being able to engage in the normal day to day activities that they typically would engage in. Whether it’s recreational or a hobby or relationships with family members or loved ones, all of those issues and more come within the topic of pain and suffering. It’s possible to pursue recovery of compensation for those injuries. Some states (and Idaho is certainly one of them) have adopted laws that limit the amount you can recover for pain and suffering damages. It’s important to understand that and to be clear about that as you are making decisions about whether to pursue your case. If you have questions about the types of compensation that you can pursue in a product liability case, again, that’s an important topic to discuss with your lawyer. We at Hepworth Holzer are familiar with those types of questions in product liability cases and we’d be happy to answer your questions and help you decide whether you have a product liability claim and whether it makes sense to pursue it.