What are Punitive Damages and When Can You Get Them in Texas?

People call on an Alvin personal injury attorney to secure maximum damages when they’ve been hurt because of someone’s negligence or other wrongful conduct. But they are often uncertain about what the damages should include.

Punitive damages sometimes make the headlines in cases, so they get a lot of attention. At DeKeyzer Law, clients frequently ask whether they are eligible for punitive damages. But other clients are unaware of the potential for these damages and the considerable assistance they can provide. 

So, we thought it would be helpful to explain what punitive damages are and when Texas law allows clients to obtain these damages. For a specific analysis of whether punitive damages would be available in your situation, we invite you to contact us directly for a free evaluation. In the meantime, here is some background information on punitive damages in Alvin personal injury cases.

Punitive Damages are Not Designed to Compensate You

Some people find it easier to understand punitive damages by thinking about what these damages are not instead of what they are. Punitive damages are not designed to compensate you for the losses you’ve suffered because of your injuries. Texas law provides for two other types of damages to provide compensation.

• Economic compensatory damages provide amounts to make up for harm that has a direct economic cost. For instance, if you slipped and fell due to a slick floor in a department store, your economic damages would provide money to pay for your bills from the doctors and hospital. Or if your motorcycle was totaled in a collision, economic damages would cover the cost of a new motorcycle. If you were hurt on the job and filing a personal injury lawsuit, then your economic damages would cover the cost of wages you lost while you were unable to work due to your injuries. When your personal injury lawyer obtains damages for any loss that has a dollar amount you can calculate, those damages are economic compensatory damages. They compensate you for economic losses.

• Your attorney will also work hard to obtain damages to compensate you for noneconomic losses. These are intangible factors that don’t have a direct monetary cost. However, even without a cost, these losses have an enormous value because they affect the quality of your life. Noneconomic losses include factors such as pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life activities. You can’t look at a bill to find out how much pain someone has suffered. However, experienced injury attorneys are able to leverage information with legal precedent to establish a value for noneconomic compensatory damages. These values are generally far higher than the value of economic compensatory damages.

Together, both types of compensatory damages are designed to ensure that the victim of a car accident or other wrongful incident receives amounts to provide justice for the harm they have suffered and meet their needs in the future stemming from their injuries.

Punitive Damages Focus on the Wrongdoer

Compensatory damages focus on what the victim deserves. By contrast, punitive damages focus on what the perpetrator deserves. The word “punitive” means something is designed to inflict punishment. Punitive damages, therefore, are intended to punish someone who did something wrongful. Courts also award these damages to send a warning to others that this type of conduct will not be tolerated.

Punitive damages go above and beyond compensatory damages. They can be considered almost like a justice bonus. It is as if the court decided to impose a fine for wrongdoing, but instead of the money going to the government, it goes to the person who suffered because of that wrongdoing. In Texas, punitive damages are officially referred to as a type of “exemplary damages.”

When Courts are Allowed to Award Exemplary Damages

In most cases, Section 41.003 of the Texas Code allows courts to award punitive damages and other forms of exemplary damages only in cases where someone is seeking recovery based either on fraud, malice, or gross negligence. If someone is injured in a deliberate attack, such as a sexual assault, that would be an action based on an act of malice, and punitive damages would be appropriate.

However, most cases handled by an Alvin personal injury attorney do not involve any deliberate attempt to cause harm, so there is usually no malice involved. Instead, people get hurt because others around them behave irresponsibly without regard for their safety.. When that irresponsibility reaches a level that can be considered gross negligence, then an injury attorney can make a good case for punitive damages.

What is “gross negligence” under Texas law? Section 41.001(11) of the Texas Code provides a complex definition. Essentially, someone is grossly negligent when they know their actions pose an extreme risk of serious harm to others, yet they proceed without regard to the likelihood that their actions will cause such harm. 

It takes intense investigation and skillful legal reasoning to persuade a court that punitive damages are justified in a particular situation. For instance, when arguing on behalf of a truck accident victim, an attorney could seek punitive damages on the grounds that the trucking company sent out a driver with a history of drunk driving offenses and who exhibited signs of intoxication at the depot when the truck was loaded. A company that would send out a driver under such conditions is more interested in making money than in maintaining the safety of the roads, and that company deserves to be punished through the imposition of punitive damages.

DeKeyzer Law Fights for Maximum Damages of All Types

When you or a loved one has been hurt because someone behaved irresponsibly, you deserve to receive the maximum damages available in your situation. This includes both types of compensatory damages, and sometimes, it also includes punitive damages.

To receive a full damage award, you need to work with an Alvin personal injury attorney who is prepared to dig deep for evidence and who knows how to craft persuasive arguments to justify maximum damages. At DeKeyzer Law, we built our reputation on standing up to big corporate interests and insurance companies, so we understand how to fight effectively to get injury victims everything they deserve. Call us at 713-904-4004 or contact us online today for a free consultation to find out what a full award of damages could look like in your situation.