An accident can lead to serious, disfiguring physical injuries. These can include permanent scarring, loss of teeth, loss of a limb, and more. In Arizona, disfigurement injuries are compensable under personal injury claims or under workers’ compensation if the cause of the injury was work-related.
At Stone Rose Law, we represent Arizona personal injury victims, including people who have suffered disfigurement injuries. To speak with one of our experienced personal injury lawyers, call us at (480) 631-3025 or use our contact form.
Examples of Disfigurement Injuries
Disfigurement can take many forms. Some of the common kinds of disfigurement injuries that can result in connection with a personal injury claim are:
- Scarring. These result from deep lacerations, heat-related or chemical burns, or animal bites. Scars can be highly visible and may cause considerable pain and discomfort.
- Amputations. Amputations can take the form of the loss of a digit, like a finger or toe, or the loss of a limb, like an arm or a leg. They can be caused by vehicle accidents or accidents involving heavy machinery or equipment, or crush injuries. Depending on the severity of the injury, an amputation can have permanent effects on your ability to work and engage in daily life activities.
- Avulsions. An avulsion occurs when a body part, like an ear, eyelid, or lips, or other skin, is forcibly torn away from your body. Avulsions can affect all layers of your skin and expose deeper tissues or structures like muscle, tendons, or bone. Common causes of avulsion injuries are car accidents, industrial injuries, dog bites, sports injuries, and falls.
- Facial injuries. These include fractures of your nose, jaw, or cheekbones, deep lacerations, burns, or damage to your eyes, nose, or lips. Facial injuries can cause permanent facial deformities that can significantly affect your appearance and your social interactions.
- Burns. Third- and fourth-degree burns from fires or chemical exposure can result in disfigurement that can require multiple surgeries and skin grafts and still leave you with permanent scars.
- Surgical Scarring. Sometimes, a necessary reconstructive or emergency surgery following trauma can leave permanent scars.
- Severe Bone Fractures. Open or complex bone fractures, especially those involving your face or limbs, can lead to permanent disfigurement because of altered bone structures or damage to surrounding tissues.
- Nerve and Musculoskeletal Damage: Injuries that result in you becoming fully or partially paralyzed or with limited mobility can be classified as disfiguring. This is particularly the case when they alter your body symmetry or functions.
Compensation for Disfigurement Injuries
At Stone Rose Law, our disfigurement law practice focuses on personal injury claims. So here we do not address work-related disfigurement injuries that are subject to Arizona workers’ compensation injury claims.
The typical compensation you can recover for a disfigurement injury is monetary. This can be through a civil court case resulting in a judgment award, but more often comes from an out-of-court settlement.
The kinds of monetary damages you may recover based on disfigurement can be economic, non-economic, and in rare cases, punitive.
Economic Damages for a Disfigurement Injury
Economic damages compensate you for direct costs you incur in connection with your injury. Some examples of economic damages are:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages if your injury prevents you from working
- Lost income earning potential if your injuries keep you from returning to the kind of work you did before the injury
Economic damages cover past and anticipated future costs/losses. For example, if your disfigurement injury will require future surgeries and/or therapy as part of medical treatment, or ongoing prescription medications to manage pain symptoms, these expected costs can be included in your direct damages compensation.
There is normally no statutory cap on economic damages, but recoverable amounts can be affected by medical payment schedules and insurance subrogation rules. Proof commonly takes the form of receipts or invoices for what you have already paid and expert testimony about the future treatment required.
Non-economic Damages for Disfigurement Injuries
The physical harm you suffer from a disfiguring injury is often only part of the overall harm you may experience. Disfigurement injuries frequently result in intangible kinds of harm that do not lend themselves to direct proof through receipts or invoices but are still very real and compensable. These are non-economic damages.
Examples of non-economic harm from a disfigurement injury include:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma
- Anxiety, depression, sleep loss, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Loss of companionship or loss of consortium
- Loss of ability to engage in daily life activities, or loss of enjoyment of life
Although noneconomic damages can be more challenging to prove than economic damages, they can still make up a considerable part of your overall compensation for a disfigurement. In a settlement sum for a disfigurement injury, your non-economic harm can be measured in one of two common ways: as a multiplier of your economic damages, or based on a per diem calculation.
The Multiplier Method
The multiplier method starts with the calculation of your economic damages. Based on this sum, an agreed-upon multiple accounts for your economic damages. This multiplier is usually somewhere between 1 and 5, depending on the severity of the non-economic harm.
For example, let’s assume that your economic damages are calculated at $50,000, and your non-economic harm is set at a multiple of 2. $50,000 x2 = $100,000, which is added to your economic damages for a total sum of $150,000.
The Per Diem Method
The per diem method is based on setting a daily dollar amount for your non-economic harm and multiplying it by the anticipated number of days it will take you to recover from your injury.
This method is sometimes used for injuries with long term recovery periods or those that significantly affect your daily life. Per-diem calculation can also be used when your injury results in a measurable duration of pain and physical limitations, with the daily rate based on factors such as your daily earnings. The per diem method can also account for future damages based on your life expectancy in cases with long-term or permanent effects.
Punitive Damages
Under Arizona law, punitive damages may be recoverable if the defendant’s conduct involved intentional harm or reckless disregard (gross negligence) for the safety of others.
The Arizona Supreme Court has held that punitive damages apply only when the defendant’s actions were meant to cause harm, motivated by spite or ill will, or so outrageous that the defendant knowingly created a substantial risk of significant injury.
The Effect of Arizona Comparative Negligence Law on Disfigurement Compensation
Personal injury defendants often try to minimize your compensation by claiming that you were partly to blame for your injury. If you are involved in an accident that results in disfigurement, it is possible that the defendant will try to use comparative negligence to try and reduce your recovery.
Arizona follows pure comparative negligence, meaning your total award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if your settlement payout or judgment award for a disfigurement claim is $100,000, but you are found to be 10% at fault for the harm you suffered, then your settlement or award will be reduced to $90,000 (a loss of 10% of the original amount).
Proving Disfigurement Injuries
You prove a disfigurement injury claim the same way that you prove most other personal injury cases. Most of the time, this means proving negligence. This requires showing that all the following are true:
- The defendant owed you a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances
- The defendant breached this duty of care
- The breach of the defendant’s duty caused you to suffer the disfigurement injury
- Your sustained damages due to the breach of the defendant’s duty
The general personal injury statute of limitations is two years from the date the injury occurred (A.R.S. § 12-542), though shorter notice/tolling rules may apply for claims against public entities or latent injuries.
Have You Suffered a Disfigurement Injury in Arizona?
Since personal injury claims in Arizona that include disfigurement can involve permanent and life-changing consequences, they are often treated as serious, catastrophic injuries. This can mean you may be able to receive substantial compensation in the form of economic and non-economic damages.
The strength of your supporting evidence is important in establishing how much your disfigurement injury claim may be worth. Another important consideration is your personal injury attorney’s skill in settlement negotiations and trial preparation.
Insurance companies and defense attorneys are skilled negotiators who will look for any way they can to reduce or even deny your personal injury claims. They will also measure the strength of your potential legal claims when deciding how seriously to take you in settlement negotiations.
A Stone Rose personal injury lawyer can provide you with the legal representation you need to recover the maximum compensation that will make you whole again after an accident that has resulted in disfigurement injuries.
We will seek to recover compensation for your medical bills, emotional distress, mental anguish, the possible need for long-term physical therapy, and any other recompense you need. We conduct settlement negotiations in parallel with thorough trial preparation, so insurance company claim adjusters will treat your claim with the respect it deserves.
Disfiguring injuries that result from someone else’s negligence may be something you have to live with for a long time, possibly even the rest of your life. A Stone Rose personal injury lawyer will aim to recover the fullest extent of the compensation you deserve.
To speak with one of our experienced disfigurement lawyers, call our law firm at (480) 631-3025 to schedule a free initial consultation. Or use our online contact form to set up a free consultation.
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