Non-economic damages

What are non-economic damages?

Non-economic damages compensate the human cost of an injury rather than its financial cost. They cover what an injury takes from a life beyond the bills it generates.

Pain and suffering is the most familiar category, but the term also reaches loss of enjoyment, permanent limitation and psychological consequences.

They correspond closely to what pleadings traditionally call general damages, with the modern term appearing more often in statutes and valuation discussions.

They frequently represent the largest component of a serious injury claim, particularly where permanent limitation is involved.

What does the category include?

The scope is broad, covering both physical and psychological consequences.

• Physical pain, both acute and chronic
• Emotional distress and psychological injury
• Loss of enjoyment of activities and hobbies
• Permanent disability and functional limitation
• Disfigurement and scarring
• Loss of consortium claimed by a spouse

Why are they harder to value than economic damages?

Because no receipt establishes what pain is worth. Where economic damages are built from documents, non-economic damages are built from testimony and impression.

Attorneys sometimes use the multiplier method as a negotiating tool, applying a factor to economic damages, but no court requires this approach and juries are not instructed to calculate it that way.

What actually persuades is specific, concrete testimony about what changed. General statements about pain carry less weight than an account of a particular activity someone can no longer do.

When are they restricted?

New Jersey's verbal threshold can bar these damages entirely in auto cases unless the injury meets one of six statutory categories, depending on the lawsuit option selected on the policy.

The Tort Claims Act imposes its own restrictions on claims against public entities, adding a further layer beyond the auto threshold.

Outside those specific contexts, ordinary negligence and premises claims generally do not face a similar categorical bar.

Common questions

How is a dollar value put on pain?

Through negotiation informed by comparable case outcomes, the severity and permanence of the injury, and how convincingly the impact is documented and testified to. There is no fixed formula.

Are non-economic damages taxable?

Compensation for physical injury is generally not taxable as income under federal law, though this is a question best confirmed with an accountant for your specific situation.

Does New Jersey cap non-economic damages?

No general cap applies in ordinary negligence cases, though the verbal threshold and Tort Claims Act impose their own specific restrictions in the contexts where they apply.