What is a Pecuniary Loss in a Personal Injury Claim?
There are generally two types of losses that your personal injury lawyer will try to recover on your behalf.
Non Pecuniary Losses
Non pecuniary losses are losses or harms that cannot be precisely measured or valued. For example, the most common type of non-pecuniary loss is compensation for “pain and suffering”.
See for example Nova Scotia Personal Injury Claims: How Much Is My “Pain and Suffering” Worth?
Pecuniary Losses
On the other hand pecuniary losses are financial losses that can be precisely measured. They may involve out of pocket expenses for things like medical treatment, travel expenses or funeral expenses.
The largest pecuniary loss that most personal injury victims suffer is their loss of income. If someone is seriously injured as a result of someone's negligence they are entitled to be compensated for their pecuniary losses for their past loss of income to the date of settlement or trial, as well as any ongoing income losses they may continue to suffer in the future.
In wrongful death cases, family members are entitled to recover for the pecuniary loss of income that the deceased family member provided to support the family.
Expert Evidence
Pecuniary losses may be difficult to calculate. Typically this part of the claim requires the services of an expert. See for example, Experts in Personal Injury Claims.
In most cases your personal injury lawyer will hire an economist or an actuary to figure out exactly what your pecuniary losses have been to date and how much your pecuniary losses will be in the future. Economist and actuaries use tables, guidelines and statistics to help determine how much money you would have earned over your lifetime. Obviously, there is no such thing as a crystal ball and future losses can never be determined with absolute certainty.
Your lawyer will take into account what are called negative contingencies. For example, the chance that you may have been fired, that your company would go bankrupt or that you may have been injured in some other way.
On the other hand, the expert will also determine the “positive contingencies” like raises, bonuses and promotions that might have increased your income in the future.
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