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What are special damages? They are the concrete, itemized economic losses caused by an injury — the kind you can attach a specific dollar figure to using a bill, receipt, or pay stub.
Medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and out-of-pocket costs like medication or travel to appointments are all typical special damages.
They stand in contrast to general damages, which compensate for pain, suffering, and other losses that do not come with a receipt attached.
Common categories include medical bills already incurred, projected future medical costs, lost wages during recovery, lost earning capacity if the injury has lasting effects, and property damage such as vehicle repair costs.
Smaller items add up too — mileage to medical appointments, prescription costs, home health aide expenses, and equipment like a wheelchair or brace are all typically special damages if properly documented.
The unifying feature is that each item is objectively calculable, generally supported by a document, and not a matter of subjective judgment the way pain and suffering is.
Economic damages, also called special damages, cover the financial losses that can be documented and added up.
General damages cover harder-to-quantify losses like pain, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life — real losses, but ones without a bill attached.
Together, special and general damages make up the total compensatory damages sought in a personal injury claim, and both categories generally need to be presented clearly for a full recovery.
Because special damages are meant to be objectively provable, thorough documentation — every bill, every pay stub, every receipt — directly affects how much of the loss can actually be recovered.
Gaps in documentation, missed bills, or unclear wage records can shrink a special damages claim even when the underlying loss was real.
This is part of why keeping organized records from the start of treatment through the end of recovery makes a meaningful difference in the value of a claim.
They are the itemized economic losses caused by the injury — medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and similar out-of-pocket costs — each one supported by a document like a bill or receipt.
Special damages are calculable financial losses with a paper trail. General damages cover pain, suffering, and similar harms that do not come with a bill, and are valued differently.
Because these losses are meant to be objectively provable, missing bills or unclear wage records can directly shrink what is recoverable, even when the underlying loss was real.
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