Is There a Limit to How Much a Person Can Recover in Personal Injury Damages in Florida?

“Damages” is a legal term used to describe a financial award that accident victims can receive from the at-fault parties who caused their injury. There are two main types of damages: compensatory and punitive, with the former being awarded to compensate accident victims for their financial losses, like their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering, while the latter are intended to punish the wrongdoer for his or her actions. The type of damages that a court awards in a particular case is important, as there are limits to how much judges can award in certain types of damages.

Compensatory Damages

 As its name suggests, compensatory damages are specifically intended to compensate an injured party for his or her financial losses. Compensatory damages are further broken down into what are known as economic and non-economic damages. The former covers actual financial losses that are easily calculated, like medical bills, property damage, and lost wages and benefits. Non-economic damages, on the other hand, reimburse accident victims for losses that are more difficult to quantify, such as emotional distress and pain and suffering. Although these are very real losses that many accident victims experience, they are intangible and so harder to place a value on. Courts still attempt to do so, however, by assessing the severity of the injury and its effect on the victim’s life.

Punitive Damages 

Besides compensatory damages, accident victims are also sometimes awarded punitive damages, which, rather than compensating injured parties for their accident-related losses, are issued to punish the wrongdoer. For this reason, they are typically only awarded in cases where an at-fault party exhibited particularly egregious conduct. Drunk drivers who cause catastrophic injuries, for instance, are often required to pay punitive damages to their victims.

Damage Caps

Generally, Florida law doesn’t impose damage caps on economic damages (one type of compensatory damages). There are, however, limits on how some types of non-economic damages and punitive damages and, against certain types of defendants, there could even be a cap on economic damages. For instance, while it is possible to file a lawsuit against a government agency for negligence, a successful claimant will be barred from recovering more than $200,000 in damages per person, or $300,000 for a single act. Furthermore, punitive damages cannot ever be awarded in cases against the government.

There are also limits on the amount of non-economic damages that can be awarded in cases of medical malpractice. In any actions for injury or death arising from a healthcare practitioner’s negligence, a non-economic damages award cannot exceed $500,000 per claimant. These amounts are a bit higher for claimants against non-practitioners (like nursing home managers) at $750,000 per claimant and $1.5 million total.

Finally, punitive damages awarded in personal injury cases cannot exceed the greater of:

• Three times the amount of compensatory damages; or
• $500,000.

The only exception to this rule applies in cases where a defendant was motivated solely for unreasonable financial gain.

Contact Our Experienced Attorneys and Support Staff 

If you have questions about the types of damages to which you could be entitled after an accident, please call Anderson & Anderson and set up a meeting with one of our dedicated Tampa personal injury lawyers today.

Sources:

 law.cornell.edu/wex/damages

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0766/Sections/0766.118.html