Damages

As a Starr County personal injury lawyer, with offices in Corpus Christi, I am very familiar with damages awards.  Compensatory damages may be awarded in negligence actions. This may also include damages for mental anguish, when there are also physical injuries. Damage awards can be quite large in serious personal injury cases and catastrophic accidents.

Additionally, exemplary or punitive damages may be awarded, such as in the case of gross negligence where it can be shown that the defendant had subjective effectual awareness of an extreme risk created by the defendant’s conduct.

A person who is placed in danger or peril by the negligence of another, but escapes without injury or physical harm, may not recover damages simply because he has been placed in a perilous situation. Fright is not the subject of damages.

Texas has a comparative negligence statute, which allows for proportionate responsibility for, and recovery of damages in certain civil actions. For instance, where a jury awards a plaintiff $100,000.00, but finds that the defendant was 70% at fault and the plaintiff was 30% at fault, the plaintiff will only receive 70% of the award, or $70,000.00.

Mitigation of damages, or damages that reasonably could have been avoided, is a factor courts consider when the issue is properly plead and proven. The San Antonio Court of Appeals has noted that evidence must be shown that clearly shows a plaintiff’s failure to mitigate caused further damages, and the evidence must be sufficient to guide the jurors in deciding which damages were attributable to the plaintiff’s failure to mitigate.

The responsibility or burden of proving a failure to mitigate damages in a negligence proceeding is on the party which caused the loss. The standard is that of ordinary care, which is what an ordinary prudent person would have done under the same or similar circumstances. The duty to mitigate damages arises only if can be done with small expense or with reasonable exertion of effort.

Contact Corpus Christi personal injury attorney Scott Nelson if you are injured in a work-related accident and need representation.