Compensation Available to Injured Parties in a Drunk Driving Accident
Utah implemented the strictest drunk driving law in the country at the end of December 2018, lowering the legal blood alcohol content from .08 to .05. The law is relatively new, making it difficult to understand its long-term effects. Hopefully, the new stricter DUI law will decrease the number of related car accidents. Indeed, British Columbia’s rate of alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased by 40 percent when they dropped their legal alcohol content from .08 to .05.
Nonetheless, with the new strict DUI threshold, it is important for Utah drivers to know about the type of compensation available to those injured parties who bring a lawsuit stemming from a drunk driving accident.
What Is the Process for Recovering Monetary Damages from a Drunk Driving Accident?
Each personal injury lawsuit will be different depending on the facts, but in Utah, multiple types of monetary damages are available to an injured party.
Tort law seeks to make the injured party whole by requiring the negligent person, in this case, the drunk driver who caused the accident, to pay monetary damages to the injured person. In car accident cases, some injuries such as spinal cord or brain injuries are so severe that the injured person will never be whole again in terms of their ability to enjoy a pain-free life. As the injured party will never get their body back in the pre-accident condition, courts award money based on the extent of their injuries. This amount of money is known as damages. The two types of economic damages are specific (economic) and general (non-economic) damages.
Ecocomic Damages
Specific damages are those economic damages that are easily quantifiable. Economic damages may include the following:
- Medical expenses such as hospital bills, the cost of physical therapy, home nursing care, ambulance calls, chiropractor visits, and long-term care costs.
- The cost of rental cars when the car accident caused damage to the injured party’s car.
- Lost wages as a result of the injured party being unable to work due to their injuries.
- Future medical expenses.
Non-economic Damages
Non-economic damages are not as easy to quantify and could include compensation for the amount of pain and suffering the injured party endured as a result of the car accident. While it can be difficult to measure something as subjective as pain and suffering, elements such as emotional stress, inconvenience and impaired quality of life factor into the equation.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are available in some personal injury car accident lawsuits, depending on the actions of the drunk driver. If the driver acted with malicious intent or was reckless rather than just negligent when they caused the accident, the court may award punitive damages to punish the defendant in an effort to punish such behavior.
Please note that this is an overview of the basic categories of compensation available. Each car accident case is unique and will require an experienced personal injury attorney to analyze the legal issues and guide the injured party through the process. If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by a drunk driver in Cache Valley, Utah, contact our Logan, Utah personal injury attorneys today.
