Pain and suffering is one of the calculations that can be used when you are seeking compensation
If you have been involved in a car accident, you might be wondering how much to ask for pain and suffering after your accident. This is a common question that is asked by people who have lost time from work or have suffered long-term health issues after an auto accident.
Many clients want to know if pain and suffering includes medical bills or how to sue for pain and suffering after a car accident. The best way to determine the pain and suffering portion of your car accident compensation is to work with a personal injury lawyer. A personal injury lawyer will be able to answer the questions that you have, including how much can I sue for pain and suffering.
If you have never worked with a personal injury lawyer for a pain and suffering lawsuit, read on to learn more about how a lawyer can help you to determine pain and suffering damages.
How Do Insurance Companies Determine Pain and Suffering?
The pain and suffering amount that is figured into your compensation request is often based on a pain and suffering calculator. This is a tool that is often used by insurance companies to help determine what their payout will be for this part of a claim related to a car accident. You and your lawyer will be able to ask for an amount that is above what the auto accident pain and suffering calculator suggests, but this is always a good place to start making calculations.
It is important to remember that money for pain and suffering is not the only payout that you will be getting related to an accident that has caused you injury. You will also be paid for the value of your car to be repaired or replaced and your medical bills will be covered at least partially by the Personal Injury Protection in your own auto insurance policy.
While it is important to calculate what pain and suffering is worth so that you know how much you can get for pain and suffering included in your compensation demands, this portion of your damages will not have to cover the replacement of your car or all of your medical bills. The pain and suffering calculator for an auto accident is often a generalized number and insurance companies will always aim to pay the smallest possible amount.
How Much Do You Get for Pain and Suffering?
The average pain and suffering payout can be based on many factors. The question of how much should I get for pain and suffering is a common one and lawyers with skill in this area will be able to advise you based on your unique case. Your lawyer will be aware of the car accident pain and suffering calculator that the insurance company will use to determine this number, and the number of medical bills that have not been paid by your Personal Injury Protection, along with pain and suffering settlement examples in your region or state to determine the amount that you should ask for.
Often, the severity of your injuries will impact the award that you can ask for, as will your ongoing inability to work or to care for yourself. You should not expect that you will be able to ask for pain and suffering amounts that will cover your care or your wages for years on end, but your lawyer will make sure that you ask for more than what the pain & suffering calculator has allowed in any kind of case.
The pain and suffering portion of an auto insurance claim can be difficult to calculate and can involve lots of subjective calculations that must be presented properly for a judge to assign them a unique value. Each state has different personal injury case requirements and limitations as well, so working with a qualified personal injury lawyer is a must if you want to get all of your ducks in a row before your case goes before a judge.
Examples of Pain and Suffering
These kinds of damages are subjective in nature, and it can be tough to figure out how much pain and suffering is worth. There are different kinds of damages that are involved in this kind of case and they will all be awarded their own unique value when your case goes to court. How much money you get for pain and suffering can depend on what kind of damages caused this pain and suffering, as well as your ability to present the correct information to corroborate your pain and suffering claims.
General Damages: These are the most common damages in personal injury cases that involve a pain and suffering component.
· Mental Anguish
· Physical Impairment
· Physical disfigurement
· Lowered quality of life
· Physical pain and suffering
· Loss of companionship
· Wrongful death of a family member
These damages are calculated through the use of a pain and suffering calculator but prior cases in your state can also affect how much you can ask to have awarded for these damages. There may also be laws that limit the amount of pain and suffering compensation that you can ask for related to these kinds of damages.
Special Damages: These damages are linked to specific bills or costs that have been incurred related to your personal injury case. Wages can be complicated to calculate in this part of the compensation demand, especially if you are going to be out of work for a long period or will never work again as a result of your injuries.
Special damages might be payment of specific bills, like a hospital stay or payment for your lost wages for a few weeks while you recovered from your injuries. Your lawyer will help you to come up with the right answer to your questions regarding how much to sue for pain and suffering when there are special damages involved.
How Much Should Insurance Pay for Pain and Suffering?
The answer to this question is complicated. Insurance companies will want to save money when paying damages on your personal injury claim and case. They use their own unique insurance pain and suffering calculator to come up with an answer to how much you can get from pain and suffering in your unique case. If you do not have the help of an experienced lawyer on your side, you will not be able to get the amount that you should for your injuries.
How much money can you get for pain and suffering is not the real question in many cases. The real question is how much can I get for pain and suffering if I have the help of an attorney on my side. Your lawyer will be used to working with the way that insurance companies pay for pain and suffering and will be able to seek the right compensation for your case.
Your lawyer knows that auto insurance companies are always trying to make sure that they do not have to pay the max damages that you are owed and they will make sure that they help you to get the compensation that you deserve for your injuries, time away from work, and your emotional damages.
Proving Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering can be hard to prove as there is always a subjective component to these kinds of damages. It will not make any difference if you ask other people you know how much did they get for pain and suffering in their case. Their case and their compensation were likely the result of a unique set of factors that was eventually adjudicated by a judge.
How much to ask for pain and suffering can be directly related to the proof that you have of your injuries and their effect on your life. Written opinions from mental health professionals and other doctors working on your case can prove these damages, as can testimony by experts during your court case.
Opinions about how much pain and suffering you are experiencing can be a valid means to verify your claims for your damages if they come from experts in the mental health or health care fields. These testimonies will use pain scales as well as prior notes from your visits to your doctors to determine how much pain and suffering is affecting your daily life and activities.
Family members can also testify about your daily struggles or suffering and explain how your injuries have affected your family life as well as your work life. All permanent and life-threatening injuries will need to be outlined in detail to support your pain and suffering claims as well.
Some factors that a judge will take into account:
· Negligent behavior by the other parties involved
· Severity of your injuries
· Overall mental health that has resulted from your injuries
· Prior cases that are similar and the overall effect of the accident on those people’s ability to work and care for themselves
· Impact of your unique injuries on your life
· Whether or not you will be able to work again
· How long you will need to heal
· What medical treatments will you need to continue to receive and for how long
· Your overall prognosis related to your injuries
Because these damages are all subjective to a certain degree, the judge hearing your case will consider how much for pain and suffering related to your claim and how much to pay out for other damages.
How Much Can You Get From Pain and Suffering?
There are two main methods that a judge and other experts working on your case might use to help determine this number before a decision is handed down for your case.
The pain and suffering multiplier method: This is a commonly used method to come up with a base number that should cover all of your pain and suffering losses. This method takes the case’s actual damages for medical bills and lost wages and then multiples by 2. The multiplier is meant to include the non-economic damages related to your case.
Per Diem Method: This method assigns specific monetary values to all of your injuries. These damages will consider the total duration of the accident’s effect on your life from the date it occurred to the date that you are expected to be completely healed as determined by a medical professional. If your medical team does not think that full health will be achieved as a result of your injuries, this information will be included in the calculations.
The question in these kinds of cases is not really how much can you get from pain and suffering or how much should you sue for pain and suffering. The question is really more about how well can I prove that my injuries have caused me pain and suffering or are continuing to cause me pain and suffering.
Your lawyer will know exactly how to present your case and what kind of expert testimony and documentation is required to prove that your injuries are affecting your overall quality of life. There is no kind of pain and suffering case that you should attempt to navigate on your own, as these kinds of cases are complicated and subjective and require thorough and complete documentation as well as testimonial support to succeed.
Work With a Skilled Personal Injury Lawyer
Now that you know more about how pain and suffering is calculated in a car accident, you have probably decided that you will need to work with the right lawyer to help you to seek damages for your case. If you want to get the right compensation for your injuries, you will need to work with a skilled personal injury lawyer.
A skilled personal injury lawyer will collect the necessary information and testimony that is required to support your claims and make sure that you can seek the right pain and suffering damages related to your accident.