If you or a loved one has been injured and suffered losses due to another party’s negligence or fault, you may be entitled to compensation for the damages that resulted from the accident, through insurance or a personal injury lawsuit. How personal injury damages are calculated to determine the amount of compensation you receive depends on your individual situation and the numerous factors involved.
In Kentucky, personal injury damage amounts are calculated by considering the circumstances of the accident, the degree of fault of the involved parties, and both economic (monetary) and non-economic factors. Compensation is meant to cover the losses you suffered, including medical bills, missed wages, and physical and emotional pain, but the amount you actually receive is modified by factors such as your share of fault in causing the accident or situation that injured you.
Personal Injury Damages Calculation
There are several types of personal injury cases recognized in Kentucky. Vehicle accidents are among the most common, but slip and falls, medical malpractice, product liability, workplace accidents, dog bites and animal attacks, and assaults also fall into this category. To win your case, you and your attorney would have to show that another party (the defendant in the case) was negligent and at fault for causing your injury, by proving the existence of the following legal elements:
- Duty: The defendant had a duty not to cause harm to you, the plaintiff.
- Breach: The defendant breached that duty by actions or failure to act.
- Cause: This breach caused your injury.
- Damages: You suffered real harm or losses as a result.
Once you can show negligence, Kentucky allows compensation for both your economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages – These are awarded to cover your monetary losses for costs you incur such as:
- Medical, hospital, and therapy bills
- Property damage, if the injury involves damage to personal property, to cover the costs of fixing or replacing that property
- Lost wages, current and future, to replace income if you are unable to work.
Non-economic damages – this type of damage award is to compensate you for the non-monetary ways the injury you received negatively impacts your life and for the suffering you and your family are going through.
Some examples of non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering, including both physical pain and mental and emotional anguish
- Loss of consortium – includes lost sexual function and interference with your marriage and personal relationships
- Emotional distress, such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Loss of enjoyment of life, from not being able to do previous activities
- Permanent disability or disfigurement.
In some rare cases, you may also be awarded punitive damages, to punish the defendant and discourage similar behavior in the future. These may be awarded if the accident was caused by gross negligence or intentional misconduct, like serious drunk driving accidents.
There are no caps on the amount of damages you can be awarded in Kentucky, but punitive damages cannot be excessive or awarded without proper procedures.
How to Calculate Personal Injury Compensation
While economic damages are straightforward and are based on the actual costs of your losses, non-economic damages are intangible and subjective. In Kentucky, there are two primary methods used to calculate non-economic damages for personal injury cases: the Multiplier Method and the Per Diem Method.
Multiplier Method — The multiplier method is used to approximate non-economic damages based on the severity of your injuries. Typically, your economic losses, including medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and other out-of-pocket losses, are calculated. This figure is then multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5, depending on the severity of your injuries. The more severe your injuries, the higher the multiplier will be.
For example, if you have broken bones that are likely to heal, you may receive a multiplier of 2, but if you are left with permanent injuries and may be unable to ever work again, you might have your economic damages multiplied by 5.
This means that if you have $50,000 in economic damages and your multiplier is 2, the non-economic damages would be $100,000. If your injuries were severe enough to be assigned a multiplier of 5, your non-economic damages would be $250,000.
Per Diem Method — This approach assigns a daily dollar value to pain and suffering, multiplied by the number of days it takes to recover from your injuries. The value assigned is based on various factors, including the nature of your injury and the effects on your life. Often there is consideration of your actual daily earnings to establish the daily rate.
For example, if you are assigned $300 per day for pain and suffering and it lasts for a year (365 days), your non-economic damages would be 365 x 300, or $109,500.
Other Factors Affecting Compensation
In addition to your total costs and the severity of your injuries, there are additional factors that influence the final compensation amount. These include:
Available insurance coverage and assets of the defendants. If the defendant has assets, you may go after them in a lawsuit, but if there are no assets, you are limited by the amount of insurance available. In Kentucky car accident cases, in order to claim non-economic damages, you must have severe enough damages to meet at least one of these thresholds:
- At least $1,000 in medical expenses
- Permanent disfigurement
- Bone fracture
- Loss of a body part
- Permanent injury
- Death.
Comparative negligence — Kentucky follows comparative negligence rules. If you have done anything to contribute to the accident that injured you, the amount you will receive is reduced by the percentage of fault you are determined to have. For example, if you were injured in a car wreck and found to be 20% at fault, you would receive $80,000 out of a settlement of $100,000.
Statute of Limitations – Kentucky imposes deadlines for filing a claim for personal injury. Generally, you have one year from the date of injury to file a lawsuit for most types of personal injury cases (Ky. Rev. Stat. § 413.140(1)) and two years from the accident date for accidents involving cars, trucks, and motorcycles (KRS § 304.39-230). If you fail to file on time, the courts are unlikely to hear your case.
Get Help Recovering Personal Injury Damages
Another factor in determining the amount of damages you may receive for your injuries is the skill of your personal injury lawyer to handle your case. After a serious accident, the experienced personal injury lawyers at the Johnson Law Firm offer a free consultation to evaluate your situation and determine the compensation you deserve.
Attorney Billy Johnson can determine responsibility and the extent of damages, establish your claim, and handle all legal requirements, court filings, investigations, and negotiations involved with recovering full financial compensation. We get results, such as the $24 million settlement awarded in a recent truck wreck case on first day of trial.
Call us today to get started. There are no costs to you unless and until we win your case.
GET HELP NOW 606-437-4488
Attorney Billy Johnson
William “Billy” Johnson grew up in the Dorton area of Pike County, Kentucky, and early on decided to stay in the beautiful Appalachian mountains. Like many others in Eastern Kentucky, Billy’s dad worked as a coal miner, a hard job but one that taught his son how to meet challenges head on and persevere. Attorney Billy Johnson has years of experience helping injured clients with claims such as car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, wrongful deaths, work injuries, and more. [ Attorney Bio ]
