After you sustain injuries due to someone else’s negligent acts, you will want to file a personal injury claim to recover your financial losses from this event. As you start your personal injury case, you may be inclined to ask your personal injury lawyer how much your personal injury settlement will be worth.
Your personal injury attorney will need to take a look at your economic damages such as medical bills and lost income along with your pain and suffering damages to calculate the proper amount. This amount will vary on personal injury cases depending on differing factors involved.
It is important that you understand how your economic damages as well as your non-economic damages such as pain and suffering damages are calculated. The King Law Firm is a leading personal injury law firm that works to obtain pain and suffering awards for those who have been the victims of a personal injury accident. In this blog post, we will shed some light on the topic of pain and suffering and how these are calculated to get a fair settlement.
Pain and Suffering Defined
Pain and suffering is more of an umbrella term used to refer to the varying forms of psychological harm and emotional trauma a victim may endure after an accident. Pain and suffering damages are considered non-economic damages because psychological trauma and emotional distress have no set financial value.
This means these things are subjective, and the same physical injuries associated with them even in similar circumstances can affect different people in different ways. Proving that you suffer emotional distress is more challenging, but with the help of personal injury attorneys, you can show the extent of your pain and suffering.
In essence, pain and suffering refers to physical pain, emotional suffering, or psychological impacts suffered after an accident that was caused by another person. Examples of pain and suffering can include the physical pain from your physical injuries or treatments, fear, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), reduced enjoyment of life, permanent disfigurement, scarring, and physical impairment, though there are many more.
Understanding Damages for Physical Pain and Mental Anguish
In California personal injury lawsuits, injured victims are permitted to seek compensation for the losses they incurred in the accident from the person who was at-fault. The compensation you can recover includes actual financial losses from medical expenses and lost wages as well as pain and suffering damages.
The purpose of awarding pain and suffering damages is to compensate victims for the ways in which this event has impacted their lives beyond the obvious financial costs. In most personal injury claims, there is no cap on non-economic damages in California except for medical malpractice cases. In January 2023, new laws increased this cap to $350,000 for cases that do not involve wrongful death with it increasing by $40,000 every January 1st until it is $750,000. This means that for 2024, the cap is $390,000.
How Much Are Pain and Suffering Claims Worth?
You may be wondering how much you can get for pain and suffering compensation for a pain and suffering claim. Ultimately, it will depend on the circumstances surrounding your case. Pain and suffering damages may not be awarded in certain cases while in others, they may be a fraction of the amount of the economic damages. Pain and suffering damages also have the potential to be worth much more than economic losses, though this is usually in cases that involve catastrophic injuries.
Many factors are considered when calculating the worth of your claim. Some of these factors include the type of injuries, severity of injuries, whether the defendant was reckless or caused intentional harm, and the liability of each party.
Calculating Pain and Suffering
In order to calculate pain and suffering for pain and suffering settlements, an insurance company will often use a pain and suffering calculator or another type of software to arrive at a settlement range.
Pain and suffering is usually calculated using either the multiplier method or the per diem method. Pain and suffering calculated in these ways can help arrive at an agreeable amount.
Pain and Suffering Multiplier Method
Pain and suffering is often calculated using the multiplier method. This is done by adding the total amounts for economic damages and then multiplying it by an assigned multiplier between 1.5 and 5. When the multiplier is set at 5, it is to denote severe injuries while the smaller multipliers are for less serious injuries.
It helps to look at pain and suffering settlement examples to understand how a pain and suffering award is calculated through this method. If someone is injured in a car accident and suffers a mild traumatic brain injury like a concussion and broken bones, they may wind up with $30,000 in medical bills and $3,000 in lost wages. Assigning the multiplier of 2 for these injuries, it would result in $66,000 for pain and suffering damages.
Naturally, if the injury severity is greater, then so are the pain and suffering losses. A victim’s pain and mental anguish in more severe injuries will mean they recover damages that are much higher.
Per Diem Method
The per diem method may also be used, which is more straightforward. This takes the number of days you suffered pain and mental anguish and then multiplies it by a dollar amount. Your attorney may ask the jury to award an amount such as $500 per day for every day your pain and suffering is expected to continue.
Proving Pain and Suffering for Accident Victims
Pain and suffering are psychological, though that doesn’t mean you can’t prove them in your case. An experienced personal injury attorney will show your medical records, have medical experts and witnesses testify, and have you keep a detailed journal where you log your pain and suffering daily.
These elements and a strong case will help show the degree of pain and suffering you have endured. The King Law Firm has represented many cases involving pain and suffering. Contact us today to calculate pain and suffering in your case.