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The Special Damages page allows you to view and record the details of special damages in the case. Special Damages recorded in SmartAdvocate include vehicle damage, lost wages, and bills from medical and other providers, and when those damages are recorded on the appropriate pages (respectively, the Plaintiff Vehicles, Employment, Medical Providers, and Other Providers pages), they will automatically also appear on this page. However, on this page, you can also manually add and edit special damages that are not in any of those categories
The Structure of This Page
Summary table: Displays the totals of various quantities across all special damages for each plaintiff. See Summary Table.
Add Special Damage button: Used to add new special damages to the case file. See Adding Special Damages.
Special Damage table: Contains the details of special damages and allows various actions to be performed on them. See Special Damage Table.
Summary Table
The Summary table summarizes the information in the Special Damage tables. It is updated automatically when changes are made to the Special Damage or Amount Paid tables; no changes may be made to the Summary table directly. Each row of the table represents an individual plaintiff. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below.
Plaintiffs: The plaintiff whose special damages totals are listed. Each plaintiff in the case with at least one associated row in the Special Damage table is automatically listed in one row in this table. 2.
Bill Amount: The total of the initial amounts of all the special damages for the plaintiff. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Negotiated Bill Amount: The total of the amounts of all the special damages for the plaintiff after negotiation and/or other discounting. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Amount Paid: The total of the amounts paid toward all the special damages for the plaintiff. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Balance: The total amount of uncompensated special damages for the plaintiff. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Special Damage Table
The Special Damage table is where the details of special damages are stored. Each row of the table represents an individual expense or other loss reflecting special damages. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below.
Add Special Damage button: Used to add new special damages to the case file.
[column with no title]: A plus sign in this column indicates that additional information is available for the row in which the plus sign is located (in this instance, Amount Paid for that Special Damage). Clicking on the plus sign opens the Amount Paid subtable for that Special Damage. The plus sign then turns into a negative sign which, when clicked, closes the subtable.
Plaintiff: The plaintiff who suffered the damages.
Provider: The service provider whose bill represents special damages, or the employer from which the plaintiff suffered lost wages.
Type: The broad category of the damages.
Sub-Type: The sub-type of the damages within the broader category.
Bill #: The identification number of the bill.
Account #: The identification number of the account of which the bill is part.
Loss: The initial amount of the damages. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Negotiated Bill Amount: The amount of the damages after negotiation and/or other discounting. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Amount Paid: The total amount paid toward the damages. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Submitted Date: The date the bill representing the damages was issued.
From Date: The start date of the period associated with the damages.
To Date: The end date of the period associated with the damages.
Balance: The amount of the damages remaining uncompensated. The sum of this column across all rows in the table appears below the last row of the column.
Comments: Any comments about the damages.
Action: A Right-click icon; the right-click menu contains Edit and Delete.
Editing Special Damages
To edit special damages:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the damages you wish to edit, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Edit option in the menu. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for special damages, with the existing information filled in.
Fill the fields in with your desired information. See The Add/Edit Special Damages Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the changes and close the panel. If you decide you do not wish to save the changes, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
Deleting Special Damages
To delete special damages:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the damages you wish to delete, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Delete option in the menu. This will bring up a confirmation message (to avoid accidental deletions).
Click the OK button in the message to confirm the deletion. If you decide you do not wish to delete the damages, click Cancel instead of clicking OK to cancel the deletion. You can also click the black X at the upper right of the message to do the same thing. Until you either confirm or cancel the deletion, you may not be able to visit any other tab in your browser.
Adding Special Damages
To add new special damages:
Click the Add Special Damage button. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for special damages, completely blank.
Fill the fields in with your desired information. See The Add/Edit Special Damages Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the damages and close the panel. If you decide you do not wish to save the damages, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
The Add/Edit Special Damages Panel
The Add/Edit Special Damages Panel allows you to fill in the details of special damages. See Add/Edit Panels for general information about panel structure and usage. This panel contains the following fields:
From Date: The start date of the period associated with the damages.
To Date: The end date of the period associated with the damages.
Plaintiff: The plaintiff who suffered the damages. This field is uneditable if the special damages were automatically added from a different page in SmartAdvocate.
Submitted Date: The date the bill representing the damages was issued.
Type: The broad category of the damages. This field is uneditable if the special damages were automatically added from a different page in SmartAdvocate.
Sub-Type: The type of the damages within the broader category. This field is uneditable if the special damages were automatically added from a different page in SmartAdvocate.
Bill #: The identification number of the bill.
Account #: The identification number of the account of which the bill is part.
Loss: The initial amount of the damages.
Negotiated Bill Amount: The amount of the damages after
Comments: Any comments about the special damages
Amount Paid Table
The Amount Paid table is where the details of payments toward losses or bills that represent special damages are stored. The Amount Paid table is a subtable of the Special Damage Table, which means that each row of the Special Damage table has an individual Amount Paid table associated with it, which is specific to the damages in that row; open a row of the Special Damage table using the open/close icons (plus sign to open, minus sign to close) to reveal the associated Amount Paid table. Each row of the table represents an individual payment. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below.
Columns in the Table
The Amount Paid table contains the following available columns: