Damages in a New Light

It has been almost a month to the day that this blog was updated. For those of you that are keeping with us, thank you. Summer hiatus goes by faster than you would think.

When at the recent American Assocation for Justice conference in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to attend a thought provoking conference on damages. One usually thinks of the damages claimed in a law suit as being the medical costs and pain and suffering associated with bodily injury. One also thinks of damages as economic loss in the form of lost wages.

But what about economic loss that isnt measured in actual dollars lost? What about economic loss that is one degree removed from the out of pocket doolar? I'm talking about damage to credit.

The argument works this way- an injury which prevents someone from working causes the loss of income. However, bills do not just stop coming in. So the person has to fall back on using credit cards to pay for things such as groceries and utilities. Credit card balances rise but remember, the injured party still has no money coming in. When the injured party falls behind on their credit card payments, their credit rating is damaged. As you know, a bad credit rating can affect one's ability to get a loan, the interest rates on loans one does get, the ability to buy a house or car in the future among other things.

The damage to one's credit rating is measurable. The increased interest rates one would have to pay on future loans can be acurately predicted and opined about by experts. These experts are generally admissable as witnesses in court. The documentary evidence about one's credit rating is similarly admissable.

The key here is that injury can cause loss that isnt immediately observable. Injry can cause loss that while identifiable, won't necessarily rear its head until years into the future. Such damages must be included- and can be included- when an injured person seeks compensation in court.