When someone else is to blame for your accident injuries, they owe you full compensation for the harm that you have suffered. This payment includes pain and suffering for the intangible effects of your injuries. You need to know how pain and suffering are calculated ahead of time, so you can receive the maximum possible compensation for your damages. You can do this with the help of an experienced personal injury attorney.
What Is Pain and Suffering in a Personal Injury Case?
Pain and suffering is a broad measure of the non-economic damages that you have suffered due to your accident injuries. You are entitled to be paid for all the ways that you have been impacted, and economic damages, such as medical bills and lost income, represent only part of the picture. Pain and suffering are a broad umbrella, and they include many things, including the following:
- Physical pain from your injury
- Emotional distress that you have suffered
- Scarring and disfigurement from your injuries
- Loss of enjoyment of the life that you had before the injury
- Embarrassment and humiliation
If you have suffered any type of physical injuries from an accident, chances are that you have experienced some sort of pain and suffering. The amount of these damages can be considerable.
Insurance Companies Will Always Underestimate Your Pain and Suffering Damages
One thing you can expect is that the insurance company will have a different viewpoint on your pain and suffering damages than you and your personal injury attorney. The insurance company will do everything in its power to try to minimize the amount of money that they need to pay you, and they will often do that by underestimating your pain and suffering damages. You will have to fight to secure all of the money that you deserve for your pain and suffering.
The insurance company is going to try to resort to so-called “objective formulas” to calculate how much they think you deserve for pain and suffering. The multiplier method is a common way that the insurance company arrives at its offer for pain and suffering. They will take your medical expenses and assign a multiplier to them based on the severity of your injuries.
More serious harm, such as a traumatic brain injury, can result in a multiplier as high as five, while fractures and other less serious injuries may have a multiplier of one. This calculation often serves the insurance company’s purposes because it may result in less money for pain and suffering than you really deserve.
The insurance company also uses a per diem method for injuries that they consider to be less serious and that they think are not permanent. Here, the insurance company assigns a daily value to what they think are your pain and suffering damages. They then multiply the value by the days that your injury persists to reach the total amount that they will offer you in a settlement.
Both of these calculations often serve the insurance company’s interests over yours. They usually result in a substantial underpayment of your pain and suffering. If the insurance company is allowed to use these calculations unchecked, you will end up losing valuable money that you deserve in your settlement.
You Can Fight Back When the Insurance Company Underestimates Your Pain and Suffering Damages
The good news is that the insurance company does not get the last word about your pain and suffering damages. The only power that they really have is to make you a settlement offer, which you can choose to accept or reject. If they are not fairly paying you the full amount of money you deserve, you have the ability to say no to their offer. Your personal injury lawyer can continue to negotiate on your behalf, seeking more money, or they can take your case to court.
In that event, a jury decides the amount of pain and suffering damages you deserve, assuming that you can prove liability. The prospect of a lawsuit gives you a considerable amount of leverage in settlement negotiations because the insurance company is often afraid of what a jury may order in damages. The amount can be far greater than what they were willing to pay in a settlement agreement.
How to Prove Your Pain and Suffering Damages
From your standpoint, you need a personal injury attorney who can effectively present your side of the story, whether it is in settlement negotiations with the insurance company or to a jury. They will document your injuries and present evidence that shows how much you really have suffered. They can offer the following evidence to give the most accurate estimate of your pain and suffering:
- Medical records that show the extent of your injury and how you have been treated (these are the backbone of your pain and suffering claim)
- Personal testimony from you about your ordeal since your injury
- Testimony from people who know you, who have seen what you have endured
- Expert witness testimony from knowledgeable witnesses who can give their opinion on the effect that your injuries should have
- Logs of your daily experience since your accident injuries
You need to know the exact amount of your pain and suffering damages before you approach the insurance company or file a lawsuit in court. The insurance company will be ready with their own calculations, so you must be ready to counter them every step of the way. You can effectively do so with help and advocacy from a personal injury attorney.
Contact a Florida Personal Injury Attorney
A Florida personal injury lawyer at Consumer Law Attorneys can work to maximize the amount of compensation that you receive for your damages. The key is to hire an experienced attorney early in the process, so you can get the most effective advocacy. Call us today at (877) 241-2200 or message us online to speak to an attorney during a free initial consultation.
