Compensatory vs. Punitive Damages in St. Louis Explained

Filing a personal injury claim after an accident someone else caused gives you an opportunity to seek compensation. This compensation generally comes in the form of compensatory damages, sometimes punitive depending on the circumstances of the accident. Understanding the difference between compensatory vs. punitive damages will give you a better sense of what you might be able to expect from your compensation in a St. Louis personal injury claim.

Understanding Compensatory vs. Punitive Damages

The primary difference between compensatory and punitive damages is the intent behind the financial recovery. As the name suggests, compensatory damages compensate you for losses you sustain due to injuries and property damage from an accident caused by someone else’s fault. Compensatory damages should “make you whole” for the financial and personal losses you have suffered or will suffer in the future due to your injuries.

Conversely, punitive damages do not compensate you for losses. Instead, they “punish” the party at fault for your injuries for egregious conduct that shocks the public conscience. Juries rarely award punitive damages in personal injury cases because these types of damages require a higher level of culpability than ordinary negligence, which is the standard in most personal injury cases.

Juries typically get to award punitive damages when they find that a defendant intentionally or willfully injured the plaintiff or caused their injuries through reckless behavior. Recklessness involves a conscious or extreme indifference to the risk that one’s actions may severely injure another person. In addition to punishing an at-fault party for egregious conduct, punitive damages also serve as a deterrent to both the defendant and others.

Compensatory Damages Examples

Compensatory damages in a personal injury case include compensation for both economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include financial expenses and losses that an injured party can calculate from records such as bills, invoices, receipts, and pay stubs. Examples of typical economic losses in a personal injury case may include:

• All medical treatment and rehabilitation costs arising from the accident, including anticipated future medical bills
• Long-term disability care costs, including home health services
• Costs of replacement services, such as housekeeping and childcare
• Costs associated with installing disability modifications or making home renovations to accommodate injuries or disabilities
• Lost wages, including lost future earnings and benefits if a disability prevents a return to work or requires moving into a lower-paying role

Non-economic losses include the emotional and personal suffering that results from one’s injuries. Unlike economic losses, calculating non-economic losses requires a more subjective analysis that evaluates the effects of accident injuries on a claimant’s life using one’s life experiences and common sense. Some examples of non-economic losses include:

• Physical pain and suffering caused by injuries and subsequent medical treatment
• Emotional trauma or suffering from the accident, injuries, or resulting disabilities
• Reduced enjoyment and quality of life caused by permanent scarring, disfigurement, or physical disabilities

Punitive Damages Examples

In rare cases, juries in personal injury lawsuits may award punitive damages to punish defendants for egregious conduct, such as when:

• A driver can cause an accident by recklessly speeding, swerving, or ignoring traffic signals like stop signs or red lights.
• A driver knowingly drives while intoxicated, especially with prior DUI convictions, despite understanding the risks of impaired driving.
• A healthcare professional intentionally ignores a patient’s complaints, causing a delayed diagnosis that leads to injury or death.
• A manufacturer sells a defective product, concealing known dangers from consumers despite awareness of the risks.

Limits on Compensatory and Punitive Damages in Missouri

Over the years, the Missouri legislature has imposed statutory caps on compensatory and punitive damages. This includes limits on punitive damages and caps on non-economic losses in medical malpractice claims. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled punitive damages caps unconstitutional, citing infringement on plaintiffs’ rights, but compensatory damage caps remain.

Current compensatory vs punitive damage caps on Missouri personal injury claims include:

• A $400,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice claims, which increases to $700,000 in cases involving catastrophic injury. These caps increase by 1.7 percent each year to account for inflation.
• A $300,000 per-person cap on compensation in personal injury claims against the state or a local government, with an aggregate cap of $2 million per accident or incident regardless of the number of injured persons.

Factors That Affect the Value of Your Case

Various circumstances may influence your compensation for pain in a personal injury settlement or court judgment. Factors affecting the value of a personal injury case include:

• The type of injuries you sustained and the severity of those injuries and resulting disabilities
• The length of your recovery period and the types of medical treatment and rehabilitation you undergo
• Whether your injuries result in prolonged or permanent disabilities or permanent, visible scarring and disfigurement
• Whether you miss time from work, experience reduced earnings in a modified-duty position, or become permanently disabled from your job or other employment
• The number of parties liable for your injuries and losses
• The number of people who also sustained injuries in the accident that injured you
• Whether you bear any fault for causing the accident that injured you
• The complexity of the facts and legal issues in your personal injury case
• The availability of insurance coverage and applicable policy limits or other financial resources of liable parties
• The degree of culpability of the parties at fault for the accident and your injuries
• Whether you file a personal injury lawsuit to pursue compensation in your case

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney Today

When you’ve suffered injuries in a motor vehicle accident, slip-and-fall, medical malpractice incident, or other accident someone else caused, you deserve skilled legal representation from a St. Louis personal injury lawyer who will fight to hold the other party accountable for your losses. Let Goldblatt + Singer seek the justice you deserve by investigating your accident, building and filing your claim, and managing your case until it’s resolved. Call us today at (314) 231-4100 or contact us online for a free, no-obligation consultation from our team of experienced attorneys to determine what kinds of compensation you might recover in your case. With countless notable cases, our law firm is eager to help you get the justice you deserve.

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