bjobjs said:
What if there is no materialistic item to put a monetary value on?
How do you ascertain a value?
My response:
There are, basically, two types of damages:
-- "Economic damages" means tangible, objectively verifiable monetary losses; e.g., medical expenses, loss of earnings, loss of business or employment opportunities, burial costs, loss of use of money, costs of repair or replacement, etc. [Ca Civil § 1431.2(b)(1)]
-- "Noneconomic damages" means intangible, subjective nonmonetary losses; e.g., pain and suffering, emotional distress and mental suffering, loss of consortium, loss of society and comfort, injury to reputation and humiliation. [Ca Civil § 1431.2(b)(2)]
In regards to "Noneconomic damages" there are no formulae to come up with a figure. For example, years ago, we used to use "3 times medicals" as a rule of thumb. However, that "formula" has given way to using "factors". Illustrative of the use of "factors" is that a case has far more value if there are broken bones, than mere soft tissue injuries involved. There are many, many other "factors" involved in coming up with an estimate of the value of a claim.
IAAL