If you’ve been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, making sense of the options available can often be very challenging. That’s where the team at Doyle Rivet comes in.
Our Red Deer-based lawyers are here to make the process as simple as possible, so that you can focus on your wellness. In Alberta, there are set heads of damages that you may be able to claim under. These include:
Non-Pecuniary Damages: these are often described as general damages for pain and suffering. There are a number of factor that go into assessing non-pecuniary losses including (1) age of the injured party; (2) nature of the injury; (3) severity of the injury or duration of pain; (4) degree of ongoing disability; (5) emotional suffering and (6) loss or impairment of life.
Past/Future Income Loss: while past income loss is largely a mathematical equation, future loss requires much more insight including (1) projected retirement age; (2) increase in earnings over time and promotion; (3) deductions for negative contingencies like job loss or death and (4) present value of future loss calculations.
Cost of Future Care: often injuries result in ongoing medical or paramedical needs that may or may not be covered by health care plans or Alberta Health. Likewise, future care may result in additional time off work to recover and rehabilitate.
Loss of Housekeeping Capacity: injuries may result in our ability to do day to day chores or seasonal outdoor work. Sometimes even when we can complete tasks the time it takes to do so is increased. Both of these instances are compensable even if we haven’t hired out the work to a third party.
Out of Pocket Expenses: essentially anything that you incur as a result of being injured you may be able to claim back. Non-covered medical treatments, mileage, food expenses while attending specialists, non-covered prescriptions and parking are all examples of these.
Costs & Disbursements: medical charts, expert reports, telephone calls and faxes, government filing fees and the like are all capable of being claimed by you in addition to a portion of your legal fees.
Interest: some of the above heads of damages have an interest component that may be charged over and above the item described.
Because of the complexity of each of these heads of damages, we encourage you to meet with a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible if you have been injured. Doyle Rivet offers free consultations, and we are happy to speak to you about your accident injury claim.
