When someone is seriously injured or killed due to the fall of another person or business, Idaho law attaches a great deal of importance to the issue of whether the party at-fault acted merely carelessly or whether the act was reckless. Here’s why.
Idaho law places a dollar limit on non-economic damages recoverable in a lawsuit arising out of mere carelessness. Non-economic damages consist of things like pain and suffering, disfigurement and impaired mobility. Economic damages are items such as loss of past and future earnings and past and future medical bills.
However, the dollar cap on non-economic damages does not apply if the at-fault party was reckless instead of just careless. Under the law, a person acts recklessly if the person knows of the risk of harm created by his conduct or knows facts which make the risk obvious to a person in that same situation.
For example, if a car crash was caused by someone driving 5 miles over the speed limit, the injured person would be limited in the amount of money she could receive for non-economic damages. However, if the crash was caused by someone driving 90 miles an hour, there would be no dollar limitation.