For as valuable as prescription drugs often are to many, it cannot be denied that these drugs confer a pretty serious risk to those who take them due to various issues that may arise from them. In the event that you have been harmed by a prescription drug, you may be able to seek damages for the harm that they have caused. However, one common question asked about drug lawsuits is just what kinds of damages can be sought after?
What kinds of damages can you seek in a drug lawsuit?
Prescription drugs are extremely common, being used by about half of all Americans at least once in their life. Because of how common it is for prescription drugs to be prescribed to patients; this means that there are that many more opportunities for that drug to cause harm. But the kind of harm that a drug may cause may not necessarily qualify for recovery of damages, regardless of if it is compensation for medical debt accrued through the damages caused by the prescription drug or the pain and suffering caused by it.
The key point to understand when seeking damages in a drug lawsuit is that you have to be able to show that the manufacturer of the drug caused damages that you were not informed of as being a potential side effect before taking said drug. So essentially, taking a drug after having been informed of the side effects means that you typically cannot file a suit for damages over them. However, there may be exceptions to this, such as if the side effects you experienced are worse than advertised.
There are two main categories of damages that can be pursued. The first comes in the form of economic damages, which are fairly simple to categorize. These economic damages include things such as medical expenses. These can vary between doctor bills, hospital bills, surgeries, rehabilitation, and physical therapy, among other things. Economic damages also come in the form of lost wages as well as lost potential wages, should the side effects result in you being less able or not able at all to perform your job. There are other types of economic damages that may apply here that you can further discuss with accident and injury law office of Terry Bryant. The other type of damages one can seek involves non-economic damages. Defining non-economic damages is a more difficult thing to do than defining economic ones, but that should not be taken to mean that they are not important to take into consideration. Basically, non-economic damages encompass things such as pain and suffering that you incur from the damage caused by the prescription medication, particularly the physical harm you suffered from the drug. You may also have incurred mental anguish from the drug damages as well, which are just as valid to take into account as the physical harm you have suffered from. One can even seek compensation in the event that their relationship with family and friends had suffered as a result of the damages from the drug.
While these are the two main types of damages that can be pursued, there is in fact a third damage type, called punitive damages. Basically, one seeks these damages against a prescription drug manufacturer because they want to punish them for their actions, with the intention of discourage them from making the same mistake in the future and preventing other people from potentially being put at the same risks as you were. It should also have a chilling effect on any other prescription drug manufacturer from engaging in similar behavior. Well, hopefully anyway. Some people and corporations seem like they will stop at nothing to get a little bit of extra money, regardless of the corners they cut along the way. One only needs to look at the Austrian wine poisoning scandal to see just how far a business may go to save money and increase profits, and how brazen they will continue to be, even after one of them had been caught engaging in such behavior. Judges are a lot less inclined to award such damages than the other two, mainly due to the fact that it is easier to show medical damages and even pain and suffering than it is to justify awarding punitive damages. Such a thing sets quite the precedent, so it’s rather carefully applied. One of the worst parts of dealing with a prescription drug lawsuit, however, is the fact that prescription drug manufacturers have quite a lot of power under their belt, and there is a non-zero chance that they will drag this out as much as possible. Having a trusted lawyer with experience in dangerous prescription drug damages is vital, as they can communicate concisely to these manufacturers your demands and can hopefully get a settlement out of them to cover all of what you have lost as a result of the prescription drug damage. Not only that, but they can compile a significant amount of evidence to compel them to be agreeable, and if it goes to trial, to convince a jury that your claim