Motorcycle accidents aren’t any different than motor vehicle accidents. In California, we basically have two types of damages. They’re referred to as special damages and general damages.

Special damages are those things that we have a specific dollar amount for. How much were your past medical bills? How much are your future medical bills going to be? How much wage loss did you actually sustain? How much wage loss are you going to sustain in the future? Those are things when I’m in the courtroom and I’m talking to the jury at the end of the case, I can write those numbers down on the board and put it on a piece of paper and show the jury John because of this accident has $20,000 of past medical bills. He has $15,000 of future medical bills. He’s already lost $5,000 of work and he’s going to miss another $7,000 of work. Those are specific numbers. Those are called special damages.

General damages are things that we don’t have a specific number for. pain, suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring, disfigurement. There’s a specific jury instruction in California that lists about 11 items that are things that are called general damages that are kind of probably a better word is intangibles. We don’t have a piece of paper. We don’t have a bill.