Arizona Laws 12-584. Special findings; future damages
A. If liability is found in a trial conducted under this article, the trier of fact shall make separate findings for each claimant specifying the amount of any:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 12-584
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Bodily injury: means bodily harm, sickness, disease or emotional or mental distress, including death resulting from any of these conditions at any time, sustained by a person. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Claimant: means a person suffering bodily injury, a person claiming on behalf of or as a result of bodily injury to another person, the representative of the estate of a deceased person or a beneficiary of a wrongful death action. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Costs of health care: means medical, custodial, rehabilitative and related expenses. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Economic loss: means pecuniary harm for which damages are recoverable. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Future damages: means economic loss and noneconomic loss arising from bodily injury that accrues after trial of a claim under this article. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Noneconomic loss: means nonpecuniary harm for which damages are recoverable but does not include punitive or exemplary damages. See Arizona Laws 12-581
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
1. Past damages in a lump sum.
2. Future damages for noneconomic loss in a lump sum.
3. Future damages and the periods over which they will accrue, on an annual basis, for each of the following types:
(a) Costs of health care.
(b) Other economic loss.
B. The findings for future costs of health care of an injured claimant shall reflect the costs and losses during each year the trier of fact finds the claimant will sustain those costs and losses. The findings for other future economic loss of an injured claimant shall be based on the losses that the claimant or beneficiary will sustain over the period of time the claimant or the deceased would have lived but for the bodily injury on which the claim is based.
C. The trier of fact may find that future costs of health care will continue for the duration of the claimant’s life, in which case it is not necessary to decide how long the claimant will live. If the trier of fact so finds, the trier of fact shall determine the costs of health care the claimant will incur each year while living.