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<v ->In the law, there really are three different kinds</v>

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of compensation you hear about.

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One of them is compensation for economic damages.

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In other words, I can't work,

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therefore, I have no way to earn a living.

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You need medical care,

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you need nursing attended care, 24 hours a day.

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That's all economic, so you can get compensated

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for the earnings that you've lost in the past

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and get enough to take care of you in the future

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if your case is successful.

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There's also non-economic loss,

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some people call it just general damages

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and those are damages for change in your quality of life

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or would've expected your life to be like.

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What if you lost a leg or two legs?

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There's a lot of things you can't do,

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you're a different human being.

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And so, things like pain and suffering, humiliation,

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anxiety, all the things that go with

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having a dramatic effect on your life

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and your physical or your emotional wellbeing,

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those are non-economic damages,

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those are the change in your quality of life.

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The third kind of damage that we hear about

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is punitive damages.

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You rarely could get punitive damages in a malpractice case

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'cause it's used to punish and usually only applies

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not to things like professional negligence,

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but to things like drinking and drug abuse

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when you're working on a patient

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and causing a terrible injury,

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something way off of what is expected

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of any kind of professional,

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and rarely happens, happily, in medical malpractice cases.

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