Car Accident Insurance Settlement Pain And Suffering – Pain and suffering includes the physical and emotional harm a person experiences as a result of an injury. Unlike economic damages related to medical bills and property damage, pain and suffering is highly subjective.
The effects of an injury can be felt long after the accident. Getting fair compensation plays a big role in getting your life back on track, but what determines a fair settlement if you’ve been hurt so much that no one can participate in your hobby at all?
Car Accident Insurance Settlement Pain And Suffering
In that situation, the injured party is awarded pain and damages. No matter where you are in your case, reviewing examples of pain and suffering settlements can help put the settlement you are hoping for in perspective.
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Pain and suffering are terms used to describe non-economic damages that a person may claim for physical and emotional injuries. Non-economic damages concern the consequences of less tangible injuries than clearly defined costs.
Non-economic damage can be subjective because it is not tied to a specific bill like economic damage. See the diagram below for more information on the differences.
When you file your claim, you do not have to choose whether to pursue economic or non-economic damages. You can get both for the same injury, but you must calculate them separately.
Pain and suffering damage falls into two categories: physical and emotional. Sometimes there is no clear boundary between the physical and emotional effects of an injury, and therefore loss of quality of life such as physical disability. In that case, both should be claimed in pain and suffering cases.
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Bodily pain and suffering refers to the physical effects of your injury, in addition to economic factors such as the loss of your job. This includes the following:
Just because you recognize the physical impact of an injury doesn’t mean you can’t recognize its emotional impact.
Emotional pain and suffering arises from the impact of the injury on a person’s mental health. Sometimes it can be due to a specific injury, while others are the result of experiencing the event. This includes the following:
These examples, and those cited as examples of physical pain and suffering, should not be considered exhaustive. If you have been injured in a way that you believe deserves compensation, take it to your personal injury attorney to see if it is eligible for compensation.
How Is Pain And Suffering Calculated In An Illinois Personal Injury Case?
There are two approaches that insurance companies use to calculate the value of an injured person’s pain and suffering.
The multiplication method adds up all the economic damages involved in the case, such as medical bills and lost wages, and multiplies that number by a number between one and five. The amplifier is selected based on several factors. Generally, a multiplier of one is used for minor injuries and a multiplier of five for severe injuries. Insurance companies always use a low multiplier because they want to pay the injured as quickly as possible.
John was injured in a car accident. He had to have surgery and lost a month of work. His medical bills totaled $25,000 and his lost wages totaled $6,000. The total economic loss was $31,000.
John still experiences mild pain a year after surgery, and it limits his physical movement, affecting his daily life. Attorney John uses a multiplier of 5 for this calculation.
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Using the $155,000 as a starting point, John’s attorney begins pain and suffering negotiations with the insurance adjuster.
A day-by-day method is an alternative to the multiplication method in determining pain and damage suffered. This method is less commonly used than the multiplication method. To do this, you assign a certain dollar value to each day that you experienced pain and suffering after the accident.
Determining the right daily allowance is difficult. Sometimes the value is equal to your daily income before the accident. Here too, the insurance company will produce as few as possible per day. Let’s use this method in the previous example to see how the results differ:
Since John earns $6,000 per month, that’s $300 per work day. If he suffers pain and suffering for one year after the accident, we use 365 days as a multiplier:
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Both the multiplication method and the daily method are the starting point for the negotiation process. Figures obtained through this method should not be taken as a guarantee of what your final solution will be. You need to understand that every accident and injury is different and differences can lead to different settlements among injured parties.
Because pain and suffering are relatively subjective compared to other forms of harm, such as medical treatment, some states have regulations to prevent their abuse. They do this by limiting the total amount of pain and suffering a person experiences.
Another factor that affects your pain and suffering is the condition of your injury at the time of resolution. Most claims are not settled until after your medical treatment, so that all parties know the true nature of your injury and its long-term impact on your life.
If you fully recover and return to work, you can expect less compensation for pain and suffering than if you were to live with a permanent disability.
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Documenting all the ways you are physically and financially limited is a good start to helping your pain and suffering. If your injury prevents you from working, make sure you have a doctor’s note justifying your absence.
Keeping track of how many days you missed, what medical treatments you received, and how your injuries affected your daily life makes it easier to argue for fair compensation.
Another way to ensure fair compensation is to hire a good lawyer. An experienced personal injury attorney:
The skills of a good lawyer can easily offset the costs by getting you a higher settlement than you could have negotiated on your own.
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After an accident, I always advise the client to keep a diary of their experiences. In the diary, write down how the accident victim feels physically, mentally and emotionally. They should also document things like days they missed from work, days their work was limited by their injury, or times their injury prevented them from participating in activities with friends or loved ones. To prepare a claim with the insurance company we sit down with our clients, review their diaries and paint a complete picture of how the accident has affected the client’s life.
Pain and Suffering aims to help injured parties in areas of their lives that are not addressed by economic damages.
Use these pain and suffering settlement examples to guide your personal injury claim so you can get the benefits you deserve.
Some states limit the amount of pain and suffering awards a person can receive. Even in states that have this seal, it can only be used in special cases, such as injuries caused by medical malpractice.
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If your injury requires surgery, you are more likely to receive a large sum of money. That’s because you have more economic damages and possibly more non-economic damages. Higher damages mean a higher settlement, assuming the defendant has adequate insurance.
Luke is a warm-hearted and talented attorney with an impressive eight-year track record in the personal injury field. With customer operations at the forefront, she is committed to providing clients with exceptional support, transparent communication and genuine empathy throughout their challenging journey. His expertise in streamlining processes and implementing state-of-the-art technology makes him a valuable partner for clients, case managers and attorneys in their pursuit of justice.
Claim Helper is an AI software that helps you gather the right information, create a robust injury claim and confidently negotiate with insurance companies. Submit this form to get started.
Claim Helper is an AI software that helps you gather the right information, create a robust injury claim and confidently negotiate with insurance companies. Click here for more information. In the event of a car accident, some damages (ie the damages you can recover) are easier to calculate than others. Economic damages are generally simple. These damages include medical bills, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity.
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In contrast, the most difficult type of damages to calculate are non-economic damages, also commonly known as “pain and suffering.” Although the right to compensation for pain and suffering is clear and reasonable, it is difficult to put a dollar amount on the pain and suffering one suffers as a result of another’s negligence.
If you have been injured in a car accident, an experienced attorney can help you get full compensation for your damages. Contact the car accident attorneys at Hauptman, O’Brien, Wolf & Lathrop for free
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