VictimsGuide • Wyoming Crash Recovery

Damages After a Wyoming Motor-Vehicle Crash

A serious injury claim is not simply a total of medical bills. Wyoming damages can include past losses, future medical care, impaired earning capacity, disability, pain, loss of enjoyment of life and other legally recognized harm.

Damages Are Not the Same as Net Recovery First determine the full value of the compensable loss. Then separately account for comparative fault, available insurance, reimbursement claims, liens, settlements, fees and other deductions that may affect what ultimately reaches the injured household.

The Major Wyoming Damage Categories

Past Economic Loss

Medical treatment
Lost wages
Out-of-pocket expenses
Property loss

Future Economic Loss

Future medical care
Rehabilitation
Attendant care
Impaired earning capacity

Noneconomic Loss

Physical pain
Mental suffering
Disability
Inconvenience
Loss of enjoyment of life

Derivative & Special Claims

Spousal consortium
Wrongful-death losses where applicable
Other legally recognized derivative damages

Medical Expenses: Focus on Reasonable and Necessary Care

Wyoming recognizes recovery for the reasonable value of medical services reasonably necessary to treat injuries caused by the defendant's conduct.

A medical service does not become valueless merely because another source paid for it or because the patient received the treatment without personally writing the check.

Do Not Assume the Hospital's Sticker Price Is Automatically the Damage

Wyoming authority recognizes the reasonable value of necessary medical treatment, but that is not the same as saying every amount appearing on a hospital chargemaster is conclusively reasonable.

Likewise, do not assume the amount accepted from health insurance, Medicare or another payer is automatically the exclusive measure.

Medical-charge valuation should be separately supported rather than reduced to either number without legal and evidentiary analysis.

Future Medical Care Must Be Supported

Future medical damages should be based on evidence showing that the treatment is more likely than not to be required because of the injury.

Wyoming does not require doctors to use a particular verbal formula. The substance of the medical testimony controls.

Evidence	Question
Treating Physician	What future treatment is more likely than not to be required?
Frequency	How often will treatment, medication, therapy or evaluation occur?
Duration	For months, years, or the patient's expected lifetime?
Cost	What is the supportable future cost of that care?
Causation	Is the future care attributable to the crash injury rather than another condition?

Future Damages Cannot Rest on Speculation

A possibility that treatment might be needed is not the same as evidence establishing a recoverable future medical loss.

Preserve the medical foundation before valuing future care.

Lost Wages and Earning Capacity Are Different

Lost Earnings

Income actually lost because the injury prevented work.

Useful evidence includes payroll records, tax documents, employer verification and time missed.

Impaired Earning Capacity

Injury to the person's ability to earn income in the future.

The claim can exist even where current earnings remain the same or temporarily increase.

A Paycheck Does Not Necessarily Prove the Person's Earning Capacity Is Unchanged An injured person may remain employed through accommodation, extraordinary effort, reduced duties, loyalty of an existing employer or a protected position while having substantially reduced ability to compete in the open labor market.

Document the Life That Changed

Pain, disability and loss of enjoyment cannot be reconstructed from medical bills alone.

Document the person's pre-crash and post-crash functioning.

walking and mobility
sleep
lifting
driving
household work
childcare
personal care
recreation
sports
travel
social activity
hobbies
concentration
communication
independence
marital relationship

Loss of Consortium

Wyoming recognizes a spouse's claim for loss of consortium resulting from tortious physical injury to the other spouse.

Consortium can include loss or impairment of society, companionship, affection, assistance and the marital relationship.

The claim is derivative. Comparative fault attributed to the injured spouse reduces the consortium recovery as well.

The Collateral-Source Principle

Compensation or services supplied from a source independent of the wrongdoer ordinarily do not become a financial benefit for the tortfeasor.

But a collateral source can still possess reimbursement or subrogation rights against the claimant's recovery.

Collateral Source Does Not Mean “Free Money”

Always investigate repayment rights before calculating the household's actual net recovery.

Medicare
Medicaid
ERISA or other health plans
workers' compensation
MedPay
provider liens or assignments
contractual subrogation

Seatbelt Evidence

Current Wyoming law provides that evidence of a person's failure to wear a required safety belt is not admissible in a civil action.

Seatbelt nonuse therefore should not be treated as a comparative-fault percentage or damages reduction in the Wyoming civil crash case.

From Gross Damages to Net Recovery

Determine the full compensable loss. Past, future, economic, noneconomic and derivative damages.

Apply comparative fault. Wyoming reduces damages by the claimant's percentage of fault.

Identify available insurance. Liability, UM/UIM, employer, commercial, umbrella and other policies.

Account for settlements and payments. Determine the legal effect of prior payments and settlements.

Resolve liens and reimbursement claims. Determine what must legally be repaid.

Account for fees and litigation costs.

Calculate the household's expected net recovery. Only then can a settlement be evaluated intelligently.

Damages Documentation Checklist

ambulance bills
hospital records
hospital bills
physician records
therapy records
pharmacy expenses
future-care recommendations
life-care planning where appropriate
payroll records
tax returns
employer verification
work restrictions
vocational evidence
earning-capacity analysis
photographs
injury journal
activity limitations
household assistance
family observations
consortium evidence
health-plan information
Medicare/Medicaid information
MedPay payments
lien and reimbursement notices

Leading Wyoming Authorities

Banks v. Crowner, 1985 WY 10, 694 P.2d 101 Automobile case recognizing recovery of the reasonable value of necessary medical services even when supplied gratuitously.

Union Pacific Railroad v. Richards, 1985 WY 82, 702 P.2d 1272 Establishes that impaired earning capacity is different from actual wage loss and can exist despite unchanged current earnings.

Weaver v. Mitchell, 1986 WY 72, 715 P.2d 1361 Recognizes spousal loss of consortium and its derivative relationship to the injured spouse's comparative fault.

Hashimoto v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 1989 WY 7, 767 P.2d 158 Addresses proof of personal-injury damages and the rule against remote, uncertain and speculative damages.

Rudy v. Bossard, 2000 WY 30, 997 P.2d 480 Automobile case holding that future medical expenses may reach the jury where the substance of medical testimony establishes that future care is more likely than not.

Rittierodt v. State Farm, 2000 WY 77, 3 P.3d 841 Demonstrates the evidentiary limit: future medical, pain and enjoyment damages cannot be submitted on an inadequate or speculative record.

Werner Enterprises v. Brophy, 2009 WY 132, 218 P.3d 467 Major Wyoming catastrophic-injury authority supporting disability, pain and suffering and loss-of-enjoyment damages based on evidence of the injured person's actual loss of human functioning and activities.