In a typical motor vehicle accident, the options for recovery for a Baton Rouge personal injury attorney are limited to certain types of damages. Louisiana law allows an injured party to be compensated for their special damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and general damages that have no fixed cost, for example: pain and suffering. However, the Louisiana legislature allows for one additional category of recovery in very limited situations: punitive damages.One such situation is in the case of an intoxicated driver.
It is without question that drunk driving is a problem in the United States and especially in Louisiana. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, 10,076 people were killed in accidents where the driver had a blood alcohol content of over .08, which represented 31% of all traffic-related death in the United States. In Louisiana alone, 234 of the 703 traffic fatalities saw drivers over the legal limit for alcohol (33%).
These deaths are completely avoidable and inexcusable, which is the exact reason why Louisiana has enacted punitive damages, which are designed to punish indefensible behavior in an effort to discourage its occurrence of drunk driving in the future. Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.4 states if an at-fault driver is found to be intoxicated at the time of the accident and that the accident would not have occurred but for his intoxication, a skilled Baton Rouge personal injury attorney will be able to recover punitive damages in excess of the damages that you have actually suffered due to your accident.
If you are a victim of a drunk driver or even a reckless driver please don’t wait to call us at Calahan Injury Lawyers so we can get to work on your case right away.
