Personal injury
General damages
Non-economic damages for pain, suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life: losses with no bill attached, set by agreement or by a jury.
What it is
General damages compensate for harm that isn't measured by a receipt: physical pain, mental suffering, anxiety, inconvenience, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life and, for a spouse, loss of consortium. In most serious injury cases they are the larger part of the value.
The California rule
Civil Code 1431.2 defines non-economic damages as subjective, non-monetary losses, including pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental suffering, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation. The same section, added by Proposition 51, makes each defendant's liability for non-economic damages several only, in proportion to its share of fault. The jury instruction on these damages (CACI 3905A) tells jurors there is no fixed standard for deciding the amount. In medical negligence cases, Civil Code 3333.2 caps non-economic damages; since 2023 the cap has risen each January under the MICRA changes made by AB 35.
Why it matters to a plaintiff firm
Because there is no formula, the evidence carries the number. Adjusters often value general damages from the medical specials, the diagnoses and the length of treatment, so gaps and thin records pull the figure down. Firms build the record with the client's own account of daily limits, statements from family and coworkers, photographs and the treating doctors' notes on prognosis, then present it in the demand letter.
Sources
General information about California and federal rules, not legal advice. Rules change and every case turns on its facts: check the statute and your own analysis before relying on a date or a figure.