Calculating Damages in Cherry Hill Dog Bite Cases

There is no exact formula that can be used for calculating damages in Cherry Hill dog bite cases. Determining economic and non-economic is a case-by-case analysis. Every plaintiff is unique, and every situation is unique. To best understand the methods of calculation and award of damages for dog bites, working with skilled attorneys is essential.

Awarding Damages

The past economic damages resulting from a dog bite are easy to ascertain, because the injured person will have medical bills and lost wages that can be easily calculated by a lawyer. When a person is calculating future economic damages in Cherry Hill dog bite cases, an attorney could hire experts to determine those amounts. Non-economic damages deal with the way the injured person’s life is impacted, what their pain was, what their suffering was, and what can be expected going forward. Using experience and looking at similar cases helps lawyers calculate non-economic damages in local canine attack cases.

The way judges are supposed to award damages is through assessing the individual’s perspective and their life experience. The judge instructs the jury on how to assess the value of the injured person’s harm and select the amount of damages that can appropriately reflect that. One never knows who the jury is going to be and what they are going to think is fair and reasonable, so that is why the calculation of dog bite related damages is very unpredictable.

Demonstrating Calculations in Court

Demonstrating calculations in court depends on the type of damages and the type of dog bite injury case. When dealing with economic damages, it is sometimes necessary to bring in experts who put formulas and numbers on the board. They do a presentation with regard to the economic losses. When dealing with non-economic losses, demonstrations or illustrations will often be made depicting the canine attack injury and some of the treatments that were done to try to express to the jury what happened and tell the plaintiff’s story.

A plaintiff who might otherwise be entitled to full compensation would receive a reduced amount if there was any evidence of comparative negligence. If the dog owner alleges that the plaintiff is more liable for provoking the animal, for example, the injured individual could be barred from receiving any compensation whatsoever. The claimant’s degree of liability can therefore impact the final damage calculation in a Cherry Hill dog attack case.

Possibility of Being Awarded Punitive Damages

When calculating damages in Cherry Hill dog bite cases, the only way that punitive damages can be awarded is if it can be shown that the defendant dog owner willfully permitted this to happen. An example would be if the dog owner purposely had the dog attack someone. A person would be able to go after that dog owner for punitive damages. Those types of circumstances are very rare.