Economic damages are the money losses an injury causes, from medical expenses and lost paychecks to a damaged car. Right now, those losses may feel like a stack of envelopes you dread opening. A hospital statement doesn't match your insurance paperwork, a paycheck came up short, and an adjuster wants wage records you never had to gather.
That confusion is normal because the rules behind these numbers aren't obvious to anyone who hasn't handled an injury claim. At The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers, we help injured people across Texas understand what each loss may be worth and document it before an insurer settles on its own number. Bring your questions about bills and lost income to our team, and we will walk through them with you.
Section 41.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code defines economic damages as compensation for actual economic or pecuniary loss. In plain terms, they repay the money an injury took from you, losses you can show with a bill, a pay stub, or a repair estimate. The same statute separates them from noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, mental anguish, and physical impairment, and from exemplary damages, which are awarded as a penalty rather than as compensation.
These losses also shape the ceiling on any exemplary damages award. Under Sección 41.008(b), exemplary damages generally cannot exceed the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus up to $750,000 in noneconomic damages found by the jury.
Every injury leaves a different financial footprint. A broken wrist may cost a few weeks of pay, while a spinal injury can change what you earn for the rest of your career.
The losses you may recover include the following:
The categories that apply to you depend on your records, which is why we start gathering them early.
Medical bills are often the largest economic loss after a serious injury, and insurers push back the most on them. Two rules shape how much you may recover from those bills.
En el interior Section 41.0105 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, recovery of medical expenses is limited to the amount actually paid or incurred by you or on your behalf. The number that counts is usually what a provider accepted or can still collect, not the higher figure on the first bill.
The Supreme Court of Texas applied this rule in Haygood v. De Escabedo, holding that only evidence of recoverable medical expenses is admissible at trial. You cannot recover amounts a provider wrote off and has no right to collect, but payments your health insurer made still count because they were made on your behalf.
For example, suppose a hospital billed $48,000, your health plan paid $17,000, and you paid a $2,500 deductible. If the hospital wrote off the remaining $28,500, your recoverable past medical expense for that bill would generally be $19,500.
Some injured people receive treatment under a letter of protection, a lawyer's written promise to protect a provider's charges from any future recovery. These bills often reflect full charges because no insurer negotiated them down.
En In re K & L Auto Crushers, LLC, the Supreme Court of Texas held that a provider's negotiated rates with private insurers and government payors are relevant to whether its billed charges are reasonable. Defense lawyers may seek those rates, within discovery limits, to challenge the size of unpaid bills.
We review how each provider billed and how you were paid. If your bills and insurance statements don't add up, call us at (972) 529-3476, and we will go through them with you.
Lost wages cover the paychecks you have already missed. Lost earning capacity looks forward and measures how an injury reduces your ability to earn over time.
En el interior Section 18.091 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, evidence of lost earnings or lost earning capacity must be presented as a net loss after federal income taxes. The same rule applies to lost financial contributions and lost inheritance, the losses families often claim after a fatal injury. The judge must also tell the jury whether the recovery is subject to federal or state income taxes.
For example, if you missed four months of work at $5,000 a month in gross pay, the jury would not simply see $20,000. It would see what you lost after federal income tax, which is why accurate pay and tax records matter.
Self-employed people, gig workers, and anyone paid in cash often worry they cannot prove their losses. Tax returns, invoices, bank deposits, and client records can fill the gap when pay stubs do not exist.
If you were between jobs, an earning capacity claim compares what you could earn before the injury with what you can earn now. At The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers, we may work with vocational experts or economists to clearly explain that difference.
A damaged vehicle is an economic loss, and so is the time you spend without it. In J&D Towing, LLC v. American Alternative Insurance Corp., the Texas Supreme Court held that loss-of-use damages are available even when a vehicle is totaled, not only when it can be repaired.
When property is damaged but not destroyed, J&D Towing describes the measure as the drop in market value from just before the crash to just after it. Reasonable repair costs can serve as an alternative measure, and you may also seek loss-of-use damages for the time the vehicle is out of service.
When a vehicle is destroyed, the measure is its fair market value just before the crash, plus loss-of-use damages. Under J&D Towing, those damages must be foreseeable, not speculative, and cover only the time reasonably needed to replace the vehicle.
For example, a contractor whose work truck is totaled may seek reasonable rental costs for the weeks spent diligently finding a replacement, but not for months of avoidable delay.
Some losses still lie ahead, such as surgery your doctor expects or years of reduced income. We project those losses from your physicians' opinions, cost estimates, and work history.
En el interior Section 304.1045 of the Texas Finance Code, prejudgment interest, which is interest added for the period before a judgment, may not be assessed or recovered on an award of future damages. That is one reason we separate past and future losses clearly in every economic damages calculation.
Strong records turn a stack of paperwork into a clear claim. At The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers, our team typically gathers the following records in this order:
Each record answers a question an insurer will eventually ask, so gathering them early saves time later.
Injured people and their families often ask us these questions about their financial losses.
In most personal injury cases, Sección 16.003 del Código de Prácticas y Medidas Civiles requires you to file suit within two years after the claim accrues. We review your dates early because certain exceptions can change that window.
En el interior Section 33.012 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, your percentage of responsibility reduces damages; if your share exceeds 50%, damages are reduced by that percentage. We gather evidence to answer unfair fault arguments.
Yes. Sección 41.0105 counts amounts paid on your behalf, so your insurer's payments remain part of your medical expenses, while amounts a provider wrote off do not.
You may, because lost earning capacity measures your ability to earn rather than a specific paycheck. Section 18.091 still requires proof in after-tax terms, so we build the figure from your work and tax history.
Keep every bill and statement, and talk with us before you negotiate or settle a balance. What you pay and what a provider accepts can affect the medical expenses your claim may recover.
They may, if you document the costs and connect them to your treatment. We track mileage logs, parking receipts, and rideshare charges as part of your out-of-pocket losses.
Sorting out which bills count, which wages to show after taxes, and what your car was worth is a lot to carry while you heal. Our team can take that work off your plate and give you clear answers about your options.
Attorney David Sanchez is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has tried more than 100 cases to jury verdict. That trial experience shapes how we prepare damages evidence from the start.
We gather your bills, wage records, and repair estimates, then explain in English or Spanish what each loss may be worth under state law. We handle injury cases on a contingency fee basis, and clients may be responsible for case expenses.
From our Irving office, we serve injured people throughout Texas. Call (972) 529-3476 to schedule a free case evaluation about your economic damages.
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