Jury Instruction 4.1: Your Guide to Damages in Personal Injury Cases
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Video Transcribed: Damages. That’s the topic for today. We’re going to talk about damages. It’s probably one of the single most important things in personal injury law. I’m Mike Ashworth, a personal injury attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Today we’re going to talk about damages. Did you know that you can read all Oklahoma laws that jurors get to hear for free? You can go online to OSCN Oklahoma Supreme Court Network, and you can scroll down in legal research and you’ll see something that says jury instructions. That’s what we call OUJIs, it’s not a board where you talk to somebody that you can’t see. It’s Oklahoma Uniform Jury Instructions, and every single jury trial that happens in Oklahoma has a series of instructions. Civil law has theirs, criminal law has theirs. So today we’re going to talk about what does it say in the Oklahoma jury instructions for damages?
Well, that’s going to be jury instruction 4.1 of the OUJIs, and here’s what it says, word for word. “If you decide for the plaintiff, you must then fix the number of damages. This is the amount of money that will reasonably, and fairly compensate him or her for the injury sustained as a result of the negligence or wrongful conduct of the defendant or defendants.: That’s what damages are defined as in Oklahoma. And they give you an example of how you can fix those damages.
Here’s the list of what’s provided to the jurors by the judge in Oklahoma personal injury actions. “In fixing the amount you will award, you may consider the following: his or her physical pain and suffering, past and future. His and her mental pain and suffering past and the future.” What we call emotional distress. “Their age.” In other words, how long they’re going to sustain these entries. If they’re expected to live to say age 85 and they’re now 25. “Physical condition immediately before and after the accident.” That’s when we use something called before and after witnesses. Who knew you before and knew how spry, energetic, and bound full of energy you were. Who knows you now that you’re walking with a cane or a walker or you’re in constant pain or you can’t lift your kids?
“The nature and extent of the injuries. Whether the injuries are permanent. The physical impairment. The disfigurement.” An example of disfigurement is sometimes in automobile cases we see people get facial scarring. That can be very traumatic for younger people, especially young ladies, and young men that have otherwise no scars at all, and now all of a sudden have what looks like dueling scars down the side of their cheek that has to get constantly debrided or treated. “Loss of earnings or time.” If you have to take paid time off from work to go to your doctor’s appointments, you should be compensated for that. If you can’t work as much as you did, you should be compensated for that. “Impairment of earning capacity.” Can you make as much as you used to? That happens quite a bit. “The reasonable expenses of the necessary medical care, treatment, and services past and future.” That’s pretty self-explanatory.
So if you have a situation where you’ve been in an accident or you’ve been hurt or you just have a question about the law in general, give us a call. Call Wirth. It’s worth a phone call to us. You can reach me, an Oklahoma damages lawyer, at tulsapersonalinjurylawyer.pro, and you can also reach us at makelaweasy.com. Make law easy. That’s the motto of this firm. We want to make the law easy for you, and that’s why we’re pros and that’s why you call us first. Wirth Law Firm.
