If you’ve been injured in an accident, your losses are more than just medical bills and lost wages. Many times, physical pain and emotional distress can make a substantial impact on your daily life.
In these cases, pain and suffering damages can compensate for the real, personal toll an injury takes on you. But how do lawyers and insurance companies put a dollar amount on something as personal as your pain?
Since pain and suffering are subjective, calculating is a little more complicated than adding up receipts. For this reason, there are specific methods to estimate a fair amount.
What Counts as Pain and Suffering?
After a car crash, you might have substantial medical bills, lost incomes, and other tangible losses. Along with that, there is pain and suffering. These damages do not have a quantifiable number.
There are two categories for pain and suffering. These include:
- Physical pain and suffering: This includes actual pain from your injuries, like broken bones, burns, nerve damage, or chronic pain that affects your daily life. It also considers how long the pain will last and whether it is permanent.
- Emotional pain and suffering: This covers the mental and emotional effects of an injury. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event. If you have struggled with fear, embarrassment, or frustration due to your injury, it falls under this category.
These types of suffering can have a major impact on your quality of life.
How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated?
Since you cannot measure pain and suffering with tangible receipts, insurance companies and courts use a few methods to estimate a fair amount. These include the Multiplier Method and the Per Diem Method.
The Multiplier Method
The multiplier method will take your total economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, and multiply that amount by a number. This is between 1.5 and 5. The more severe or long-lasting your pain, the higher the multiplier.
Formula: Pain and Suffering = Economic Damages × Multiplier
There are several factors that can affect the multiplier. The severity of the injury is one. In some cases, a broken arm might have a lower multiplier as opposed to someone with severe spinal cord injuries.
Recovery time is also taken into consideration. A short-term injury gets a lower multiplier than a permanent one. Along with that, if your injury prevents you from working or enjoying hobbies, the multiplier is higher.
For those who have documented issues with anxiety, depression, or PTSD, that can increase the multiplier.
The Per Diem Method
The per diem method is the other calculation. In this scenario, there is an assigned daily dollar amount for your pain and suffering. It will be multiplied by the number of days you have been affected.
Formula: Pain and Suffering = Daily Rate × Number of Days
What Insurance Companies Consider
If you are dealing with an insurance company after a car crash, they use software and past case data to come up with a number. Some of these factors they consider include:
- Your type of injury: More severe injuries lead to higher payouts.
- Medical treatment: Long hospital stays, surgeries, and physical therapy indicate higher pain and suffering.
- Prescriptions: Pain medications or antidepressants can support your claim.
- Mental health records: Therapy or psychiatric care for emotional distress strengthens your case.
How to Prove Pain and Suffering
Since pain and suffering is subjective, proving it takes more than just saying, “I’m in pain.” You need evidence to support your claim, such as:
- Medical records: Doctor visits, physical therapy, and surgeries all document your pain.
- Therapist reports: If you’ve seen a counselor for anxiety, PTSD, or depression, their testimony helps.
- Personal journals: Writing about your daily struggles with pain and emotional distress can serve as evidence.
- Statements from family and friends: The people around you can testify to how the injury has changed your mood, mobility, and lifestyle.
Pain and Suffering in Wrongful Death Cases
Unfortunately, car crashes can lead to death. In some cases, pain and suffering damages may be awarded to surviving family members. This compensation covers:
- Loss of companionship
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
Pain and suffering damages acknowledge that these unseen injuries affect your life in real, deeply personal ways. Since pain and suffering is hard to quantify, insurance companies often try to downplay it. But having the right evidence and legal representation can help.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, Shrager, Sachs & Blanco is ready to help get your entitled compensation.
