If a plaintiff is awarded compensation, how is the amount decided?
The damages in a plaintiff case are decided in many different ways. If it's a negligence case for example, the damages would be broken up into general damages and special damages. General damages would include damages like the plaintiff's past, present and future pain and suffering. The economic portion, or special damages, would include damages like the plaintiff's past lost earnings, current lost earnings and future lost earnings, as well as the cost of past, present and future medical care. Obviously a plaintiff who has suffered significant injury, such as brain damage or loss of motor functions or quadriplegia or paraplegia, is going to need significant future medical care, and so those damages would be proved based upon his life or her life expectancy chart. These life expectancy charts are actually posted in the back of the California Jury Instructions. It's an actuarial table that will tell you the expected life of this person. Then what a good plaintiff's attorney will do is hire an expert witness or treating physician who will then give a reasonable and accurate statement based on the average cost of care treatment over that given time period. Then the damages are calculated mathematically to determine what that cost or damage would be.
