After a car accident in Mississippi, you may be able to recover compensation for both the financial losses you can calculate and the personal effects of the injury that do not come with a receipt. In a personal injury case, that compensation is called damages, meaning money intended to account for losses caused by someone else's negligence.
Damages may include medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning ability, vehicle damage, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life. Mississippi also allows punitive damages in limited cases involving especially serious misconduct. If you share some responsibility for the crash, your recovery can be reduced by your percentage of fault.
Consider a pipefitter from Moss Point who is rear-ended on I-10 while driving home from the yard. His truck still runs, but a herniated disc keeps him off the job for four months. The overtime his family depends on disappears with it. A few weeks later, an adjuster offers enough to cover the emergency room bill and some base wages.
Is that the full value of his claim? Probably not if the calculation leaves out overtime, future treatment, lasting work restrictions, or what the injury has taken away from his daily life.
At Ben Bowden, PC, we represent people injured in car accidents across the Mississippi Gulf Coast and George County. Ben Bowden previously represented insurance companies and corporations in personal injury cases. He now uses that experience to recognize where carriers may be undervaluing a claim and what evidence is needed to show the full loss.
What Are Economic Damages In A Mississippi Car Accident Case?
Economic damages are measurable financial losses. These are losses that can usually be documented through bills, invoices, tax records, pay statements, estimates, and other financial evidence.
They can include:
- Medical expenses, including emergency care, surgery, rehabilitation, prescriptions, medical equipment, and reasonably anticipated future treatment
- Lost wages, including regular pay, overtime, shift differentials, commissions, or bonuses you would otherwise have earned
- Lost earning capacity, meaning a reduction in your ability to earn income in the future because of the injury
- Vehicle repairs or replacement, rental expenses, and other damaged personal property
- Other documented expenses caused by the accident and injury
Lost earning capacity is different from simply missing a few paychecks. A welder, pipefitter, refinery worker, or warehouse employee may return to work but no longer be physically capable of doing the same job, working the same hours, or earning the same income.
Future losses also need support. Doctors, vocational professionals, economists, and other experts may help establish what an injury is likely to cost over time.
Ben Bowden, PC also works with a legal nurse consultant who can review medical records and help connect the treatment, physical restrictions, and future medical needs to the injuries caused by the crash.
If missed income is one of your biggest concerns, read more about recovering lost wages after a Mississippi accident.
What Are Noneconomic Damages?
Noneconomic damages are losses that affect your life but do not have an exact dollar amount attached to them.
A medical bill can show what surgery cost. It cannot show what it feels like to wake up in pain every morning, stop fishing because your shoulder no longer moves properly, or need help doing things you used to handle yourself.
Noneconomic damages can include pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Under Mississippi Code § 11-1-60, noneconomic damages in most civil cases outside medical malpractice are subject to a $1 million statutory cap. The jury is not told about the cap. If a noneconomic damages verdict exceeds the applicable limit, the court applies the statutory restriction afterward.
The statute does not impose that same cap on objectively verifiable economic losses such as medical expenses and lost earnings.
When Can You Recover Punitive Damages After A Mississippi Car Accident?
Punitive damages are different from compensation for your actual losses. Their purpose is to punish particularly serious wrongdoing and discourage similar conduct.
Mississippi sets a high standard. Under Mississippi Code § 11-1-65, punitive damages generally require clear and convincing evidence of actual malice, actual fraud, or gross negligence showing a willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for the safety of others.
A routine driving mistake usually will not meet that standard. Conduct such as extremely reckless driving may present a different question depending on the facts.
Mississippi generally limits punitive damages according to the defendant's net worth, although the statute contains exceptions, including for certain injuries caused while a defendant was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
How Does Comparative Negligence Affect Your Compensation?
Comparative negligence means that more than one person can share responsibility for an accident.
Mississippi follows a pure comparative negligence rule. You can still recover damages if you were partly responsible, but your recovery is reduced according to your share of fault.
Suppose your total damages are $200,000 and you are found 20 percent responsible. The award would be reduced by 20 percent, leaving $160,000.
That gives insurance companies a strong reason to argue that you contributed to the crash. They may point to speed, distraction, braking, lane position, or another detail to shift a larger percentage of fault onto you.
Our article on how fault is determined after a Mississippi car accident explains this process in more detail.
What Do Insurance Policy Limits Mean For Your Recovery?
Policy limits are the maximum amounts an insurance policy will pay under particular coverage. A serious injury can be worth far more than the at-fault driver's insurance policy provides.
Mississippi requires minimum automobile liability coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, along with $25,000 for property damage. The Mississippi Insurance Department warns that these minimum limits may not be enough when a serious accident occurs.
That does not necessarily mean your recovery ends at the other driver's policy limit.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, often called UM/UIM coverage, may provide another source of compensation through your own policy when the responsible driver has no insurance or too little insurance. Other potentially responsible parties and insurance policies may also need to be investigated.
How Long Do You Have To Seek Damages In Mississippi?
The statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit.
Many Mississippi personal injury cases are subject to a three-year filing period under Mississippi Code § 15-1-49. Some cases have different or shorter requirements, particularly claims involving government entities.
Waiting also creates practical problems before the legal deadline arrives. Evidence can disappear, witnesses become harder to find, and memories fade.
“The Loss Is Usually Bigger Than The First Stack Of Bills”
“On the defense side, I saw exactly how adjusters value a claim. They pay close attention to what is documented and question what isn't. Lost overtime, future treatment, and the job someone can no longer return to are often where the real value of a claim gets missed.” - Ben Bowden
A car accident claim should account for what the injury has already cost you and what it may continue to cost you in the years ahead.
Find Out What Your Gulf Coast Car Accident Claim Is Worth
An insurance company's first offer is based on its evaluation of the claim. It may not account for every medical expense, future limitation, missed paycheck, or way the injury has changed your life.
Ben Bowden reviews medical records, work and pay history, available insurance coverage, and the circumstances of the crash to identify the damages that should be part of the claim. Drawing on his previous work as an insurance defense trial attorney, he prepares each Mississippi car accident case with litigation in mind rather than assuming the insurer's first calculation is correct.
When you contact Ben Bowden, PC, you can speak directly with Ben about what happened and what your claim may include.
Call us today or contact the Gulfport or Lucedale office to schedule a free consultation. There is no fee unless the firm recovers compensation for you.
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