Types Of Damages

Compensatory Damages

The word "compensate" means "to offset an error or undesirable effect". Compensatory damages, therefore, are meant to make up for an injury sustained by an individual. There are two basic types of compensatory damages: economic and non-economic.

Compensation for personal injury, products liability, and wrongful death cases comes in two main forms in Oregon, pursuant to ORS 31.710:

• Economic damages: defined as objectively verifiable monetary losses including but not limited to reasonable charges necessarily incurred for medical, hospital, nursing and rehabilitative services and other health care services, burial and memorial expenses, loss of income and past and future impairment of earning capacity, reasonable and necessary expenses incurred for substitute domestic services, recurring loss to an estate, damage to reputation that is economically verifiable, reasonable and necessarily incurred costs due to loss of use of property and reasonable costs incurred for repair or for replacement of damaged property, whichever is less.
• Non-Economic Damages: defined as subjective, non-monetary losses, including but not limited to pain, mental suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, injury to reputation, loss of care, comfort, companionship and society, loss of consortium, inconvenience and interference with normal and usual activities apart from gainful employment.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are meant to punish a defendant for acts of intentional, willful, wanton or reckless misconduct that cause injury to the plaintiff. They are meant to prevent the defendant or others in similar situations from allowing or causing the same sort of injury to happen in the future.

Punitive Damage Verdicts = 60% of any such an award is paid to the Oregon Criminal Injuries Compensation Account, and an additional 10% is paid to the State Court Facilities and Security Account, Pursuant to ORS 31.735:

• ORS 31.735 Distribution of Punitive Damages, Section 1(a):
  • (a) Thirty percent is payable to the prevailing party.  The attorney for the prevailing party shall be paid out of the amount allowed under this paragraph, in the amount agreed upon by the attorney and prevailing party.  However, in no event may more than 20 percent of the amount awarded as punitive damages be paid to the attorney for the prevailing party.
• ORS 31.735 Distribution of Punitive Damages, Section 1(b):
  • (b) Sixty percent if payable to the Attorney General for deposit in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Account of Justice Crime Victims’ Assistance Section, and may be used only for the purposes set forth in ORS chapter 147.
• ORS 31.735 Distribution of Punitive Damages, Section 1(c):
  • (b) Ten percent is payable to the Attorney General for deposit in the State Court Facilities and Security Account established under ORS 1.178.

Court Costs and Attorney's Fees

If a personal injury case is settled in favor of the plaintiff, he or she may also have recourse to recover some of the expenses of taking the case to court. These court costs would include filing and process server fees, obtaining deposition and court transcripts, and payment to translators. There are some instances in which a plaintiff may also be able to recover attorney and expert witness fees, but this is not as common.

If you or a loved one is in need of legal assistance, call Wobbrock & Lane Trial Lawyers, P.C. at 503-228-6600. The initial consultation is free of charge, and if we agree to handle your case, we will work on a contingency fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery of funds. In many cases, a lawsuit must be filed before an applicable expiration date, known as a statute of limitations. Please call right away to ensure that you do not waive your right to possible compensation.