If an accident has left you injured and it wasn’t your fault, you may be entitled to compensation for your lost earnings, medical bills, pain and suffering, and property damage. Pain and suffering refers to the physical pain and emotional anguish you experience due to your injuries. While economic damages like medical expenses and lost income are fairly straightforward to calculate, putting a dollar amount on pain and suffering is much more difficult.
Insurance companies will do everything possible to minimize the amount they pay you for pain and suffering. Trying to handle a personal injury claim on your own, especially asking for pain and suffering compensation, is extremely challenging. Your best bet is to hire an experienced Dallas personal injury lawyer who understands the law, deals with the insurance companies, and will fight to get you the full and fair compensation you deserve.
What is Pain and Suffering in a Personal Injury Case?
In a personal injury case, “pain and suffering” is a legal term that refers to damages meant to compensate an injured person for the physical pain, emotional distress, inconvenience, and loss of enjoyment of life caused by the accident and their injuries.
This can include things like:
- Physical pain from the injuries
- Emotional distress like anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc.
- Inability to do activities you once enjoyed
- Inconvenience of medical treatments and rehabilitation
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Loss of companionship if injuries affect relationships
Compared to other types of damages like medical bills and lost wages, which have clear dollar amounts, pain and suffering are very subjective and difficult to quantify. There’s no set formula or calculator for determining the monetary value of someone’s pain and distress. That’s why they become a major point of contention when negotiating a personal injury settlement with an insurance company. A skilled personal injury lawyer will calculate your pain and suffering damages and seek justice.
How Do Insurance Companies Calculate Pain and Suffering?
Insurance companies often use a multiplier method to determine pain and suffering. They add up the economic damages, such as medical bills and lost earnings, then multiply that by a number between one and a half and five, depending on the severity of the injuries and other factors. For example, if your medical bills and lost income total $5,000 and the insurance adjuster uses a multiplier of three, they will offer $15,000 for pain and suffering.
However, insurance companies are notorious for using very low multipliers to minimize payouts. They may argue your injuries aren’t serious or claim you had preexisting conditions. Without compelling evidence and strong negotiation tactics, you’ll likely receive a lowball offer that doesn’t come close to adequately compensating you.
Insurers may also try other tactics like:
- Disputing the extent and severity of your injuries
- Claiming that something else caused your injuries
- Arguing your medical treatment was unnecessary
- Saying you failed to mitigate damages by not getting prompt treatment
- Using anything you say against you to weaken your claim
This is why most injury victims find that insurance companies substantially undervalue their pain and suffering. An aggressive personal injury lawyer can compel an insurer to properly compensate you for pain and suffering.
Challenges of Asking for Pain and Suffering On Your Own
Putting a price tag on pain and suffering is inherently challenging. How do you quantify the anguish of a permanent impairment or the inability to pick up your child? There are no receipts or pay stubs to point to. It’s a deeply personal loss that’s hard to express in terms of dollars.
If you try to ask for pain and suffering compensation on your own, you face an uphill battle. Insurance adjusters deal with injury claims every single day. They aim to pay out as little as possible. You’ll be going up against seasoned professionals who know the tricks of the trade to diminish the value of your claim. A personal injury attorney has experience and will be invaluable in negotiating with insurance adjusters.
Some of the biggest challenges include:
Proving the Extent of Your Pain and Suffering
To recover meaningful compensation for pain and suffering, you need strong proof of how significantly your injuries impacted your life. Keeping a pain diary, documenting your physical and emotional struggles, getting statements from friends and family who witnessed your hardships – all of this evidence can help show what you went through.
However, how will you know what to say and how to say it to have an impact? Will you gather the right documentation? A personal injury lawyer can build a bulletproof case for pain and suffering and collect the necessary evidence to support your case.
Calculating a Fair and Reasonable Amount
As mentioned, putting a dollar value on pain and suffering is difficult. There are several methods and factors to consider.
What’s a fair multiplier for your specific situation? What about factors like permanent disability, reduced earning capacity, and loss of consortium? Are you accounting for future pain and suffering or what you already endured?
Without a strong personal injury lawyer with success in similar cases, you likely won’t know how to determine an appropriate figure. You can easily shortchange yourself. Hiring a lawyer to calculate your damages is vital.
Negotiating with the Insurance Company
Insurance adjusters are professional negotiators with extensive experience handling injury claims. They know what to say to get claimants to accept lowball offers. They won’t simply agree to whatever pain and suffering amount you propose. Instead, they’ll use tactics to get you to settle for less, like disputing your injuries, claiming you’re partially at fault, stonewalling, making “final” offers, and acting like they’re doing you a favor.
Negotiating with an insurer is incredibly frustrating and stressful, especially when you’re already dealing with the pain of your injuries. It takes skill to stand your ground against their tactics and compel them to pay a fair amount.
Why You Should Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
Your best action is to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. A skilled attorney will take over all dealings with the insurance company and work to secure maximum compensation for all your damages, including pain and suffering.
Some of the many benefits of hiring a lawyer include:
Knowledge of the Law and Legal Process
Personal injury lawyers have in-depth knowledge of the relevant laws and legal procedures for pursuing an injury claim. They understand the nuances of proving pain and suffering damages, calculating fair compensation amounts, and countering insurance company tactics. A good attorney can properly assess what your pain and suffering claim is worth, and your lawyer will fight tooth and nail to recover every penny you owe.
Access to Resources and Professionals
Experienced injury lawyers can access extensive resources to bolster your pain and suffering case, like networks of medical professionals who can provide compelling testimony about your injuries and future prognosis. They can bring in expert witnesses to help prove the extent of your pain and suffering in ways the insurance company can’t ignore. Most injury victims don’t have these resources at their disposal.
Aggressive Negotiation Skills
Personal injury attorneys are skilled negotiators who know how to handle insurance adjusters. They are not intimidated by lowball offers or denial tactics.
Your Dallas personal injury lawyer will present strong evidence of your pain and suffering and aggressively negotiate to secure the highest possible offer. If the insurance company refuses to make a fair offer, your attorney can file a lawsuit and take them to court.
Objectivity and Freedom to Recover
Dealing with the physical and emotional aftermath of a serious injury is draining enough. When you add the stress of handling a complicated legal claim, it can feel downright overwhelming.
Hiring a personal injury attorney allows you to focus on your recovery while your attorney deals with the headache of building your case and fighting the insurance company. Let your lawyer handle the legal legwork while you concentrate on healing.
No Fees Unless You Win
Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no upfront fees, and your lawyer only gets paid if they recover money for you. If your case is unsuccessful, you don’t owe any legal fees. This makes it financially risk-free to get the legal representation you need. With a lawyer, you have nothing to lose and potentially lots of money for your pain and suffering to gain.
What Damages Can You Recover For Pain and Suffering?
In a personal injury claim, you can potentially recover compensation for non-economic damages related to your pain and suffering, including:
Physical Pain and Discomfort
The actual physical pain you experienced from your injuries is compensable in a personal injury case. This includes immediate pain at the time of the accident, pain from medical treatments, chronic pain, aches, soreness, stiffness, and any other ongoing physical discomfort you suffered due to the incident.
Mental and Emotional Distress
The mental and emotional impact of an accident and injury can be just as distressing as the physical pain. Injured people often struggle with psychological symptoms like shock, anxiety, depression, irritability, sleep disturbances, lack of energy, and more.
In serious cases, accident victims develop PTSD, phobias, or other psychiatric conditions. This significant mental and emotional distress is compensable.
Inconvenience
Injuries are huge inconveniences that disrupt your entire life. From frequent doctor appointments to not driving or performing basic self-care tasks, every little inconvenience factors into your pain and suffering. Needing to hire household help, rearrange schedules, modify homes and vehicles for disabilities, and more all represent compensable inconveniences.
Loss of Enjoyment
Many accident victims find themselves cannot participate in hobbies and activities they once loved due to their injuries. If you can no longer play sports, exercise, travel, socialize, or do other things you previously enjoyed, you can recover damages for that loss of enjoyment. Losing the ability to play with your kids or walk your dog is a major detriment to quality of life.
Disfigurement
Serious injuries often result in permanent scarring and disfigurement. This visible physical damage not only causes embarrassment and self-consciousness but also serves as a constant reminder of the pain and trauma you experienced. Damages for disfigurement aim to compensate you for the mental anguish your altered appearance causes.
Physical Limitations
Debilitating injuries like paralysis, amputation, and brain damage cause severe physical limitations that greatly impact every aspect of your life. From reduced mobility to loss of bodily functions to inability to do basic tasks, these physical limitations cause immense frustration, dependence on others, and loss of freedom. The more your injuries limit you physically, the more pain and suffering compensation you may be entitled to.
Lost Earning Capacity
Some catastrophic injuries cause such extensive physical and cognitive impairments that you cannot work at the same level as before or work at all. A permanent disability or reduced earning capacity represents a huge financial loss over your lifetime. Pain and suffering compensation can account for the mental anguish you cannot provide for yourself and your family like you used to.
Loss of Consortium
Injuries don’t only negatively impact the victim; they also take a toll on close family members. Loss of consortium refers to the damage the injury causes to your relationship with your spouse, such as loss of companionship, affection, help with household duties, and inability to have a sexual relationship. In some cases, spouses can recover for loss of consortium in a personal injury case as part of pain and suffering.
Determining what types of pain and suffering damages you have and what they’re worth is difficult. An experienced personal injury lawyer can assess your situation, gather evidence of your suffering, consult with professionals, and fight for the maximum compensation you’re entitled to.
Reach Out to an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer for a Free Consultation
If an accident has injured you, you don’t have to handle the personal injury claim process alone. Reach out to an experienced Dallas personal injury lawyer for a free consultation.
Get the legal support you need to pursue the compensation you deserve for all your losses, including pain and suffering. The right attorney can make all the difference in your case.
