How much pain and suffering is worth for a car accident victim can vary. Pain and suffering can refer to many different types of harm, from post-traumatic stress disorder to physical pain and depression. The unique details of your pain and suffering, the duration of your symptoms, and the severity of your symptoms can all affect the value of this class of damages.
Calculating any car accident-related damage can be difficult, and calculating pain and suffering is particularly challenging. Allow an experienced Florida car accident attorney to calculate, document, and demand compensation for your pain and suffering (and all other recoverable damages).
What Is Pain and Suffering?
“Pain and suffering” is a term commonly used in personal injury claims. This is a class of recoverable damages that can include several specific types of harm, including:
- Physical pain: If you suffered spine injuries in the accident, you likely experienced pain. Your lawyer will account for this pain, including any chronic symptoms you endure.
- Injuries that affect your appearance: Scarring and amputation injuries can affect your appearance. When your appearance changes in ways you don’t like, your self-esteem, personal life, and quality of life may suffer.
- Disability: Disabling injuries are typically more expensive than most, and they can also cause substantial pain and suffering. The day-to-day challenge of being disabled can be immensely difficult, and your lawyer will factor all disabling injuries into their calculation of pain and suffering.
- The loss of physical abilities: If you are physically diminished because of accident-related injuries, it’s a form of pain and suffering.
- Cognitive deficits: Brain damage and trauma can cause cognitive changes in a car accident victim. Memory deficits, concentration problems, and other cognitive impairments are typically categorized as pain and suffering.
- Mood and personality changes: Brain injuries and the stress of a car accident can change a victim’s mood—either temporarily or permanently. Your lawyer will consult doctors, mental health professionals, and you about any mood and personality changes that entitle you to compensation.
- Conditions that a mental health professional can diagnose: Some such conditions include PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Car accident lawyers frequently encounter accident victims with clinical conditions, and they calculate the cost of those conditions before negotiating a settlement.
- Lost quality of life: Car accidents don’t enrich their victims. In fact, your accident may have significantly diminished your quality of life and may do so for the foreseeable future.
The American Bar Association (ABA) notes that car accidents are the most common reason for filing a personal injury lawsuit. It adds that pain and suffering is one of the damages you can get compensation for, if your lawyer succeeds in your case.
Most car accident victims have no idea how to calculate pain and suffering. Car accident lawyers do.
How a Car Accident Attorney May Calculate Your Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering does not have an obvious financial value, but a lawyer does not simply guess when it comes to the cost of such damages. Instead, your lawyer will use one of two methods for calculating pain and suffering:
- The per diem method, which assigns a daily value to pain and suffering
- The multiplier method, calculating pain and suffering by multiplying the value of your economic damages (like medical costs) by an appropriate value
A lawyer may consider several factors when deciding which calculation method to use in your case. If you desire, you can ask your lawyer which method they use and why they use it.
In either case, pain and suffering may account for a significant percentage of your total case value. This is why it’s so important to have a capable lawyer calculating the cost of your pain and suffering.
Your Case Value Will Include More Than Just Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering is an important damage to consider for car accident cases. However, pain and suffering is far from the only damage that car accident lawyers include in their settlement demands.
Other losses that car accident victims often suffer are:
The Cost of Counseling and Other Mental Health Services
Treatment goes hand-in-hand with pain and suffering. Counseling, medication, and other mental health services may specifically help with:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- PTSD
- Sleep disturbances
Those who suffer prolonged pain may even experience thoughts of self harm. Mental health services may be particularly necessary in such cases.
Lost Income
Those injured and traumatized because of car accidents may:
- Need a temporary or permanent leave from their work
- Lose income as a result of the work absence
- May have to reduce their hours, find a new line of work, or make other professional changes that decrease their earning power
- Be permanently disabled and therefore unable to earn an income
Your car accident lawyer will gather all relevant facts about your accident’s impact on your ability to work. They will seek compensation covering your present and future professional damages.
Medical Bills
Car accident victims often need emergency transport and care, multiple doctor appointments, medical imaging, medication, surgery, and a range of other medical resources. Your attorney will document your medical care and include all accident-related medical bills in your case.
Vehicle Repair Costs
Your lawyer will account for the cost of:
- Repairing your vehicle (if it can be repaired)
- Replacing your vehicle (if it was totaled)
- Any temporary transportation you need while you are without your vehicle
- Repairing or replacing any other property that was damaged during the accident
If you have any other damages—economic or non economic—your lawyer will calculate their value and fight for a fair financial recovery.
Your Lawyer Won’t Just Calculate Your Damages—They’ll Prove Them, Too
Once they’ve investigated your accident, your lawyer will know what damages you’ve suffered because of the liable parties’ negligence. However, knowing is not enough. Your lawyer will need to prove the exact details of your losses, including the financial value of each.
Some documentation your attorney may use when building your case include:
- For medical costs: Medical bills, X-rays, CT scans, photographs of injuries, doctors’ written diagnoses of your injuries and symptoms
- For property expenses: Bills for vehicle repairs, receipts for rideshare services, valuations of the replacement value of a totaled vehicle, bills for the repair of non-vehicular property damaged during the car accident
- For pain and suffering: A mental health professional’s diagnosis of conditions like PTSD, bills for mental health services, receipts for medication
- For professional losses: Bank statements showing the amount of income you earned before the car accident, bank statements showing your post-accident income (and the presumed decline in your earnings), a doctor’s testimony about how your injury symptoms interfere with your professional duties
Your lawyer’s first goal may be to secure a fair settlement for you. After all, this is how most accident victims get compensation, and it’s probably the quickest path to your financial recovery. If they are going to present a winning argument for a settlement, your lawyer will need to get convincing evidence of your losses.
Is It Worth Hiring a Car Accident Lawyer?
It is absolutely worth hiring a car accident lawyer because:
- There’s no direct cost for you to hire an attorney: Because car accident lawyers typically offer contingency fees, there is no direct cost for you to hire one. The lawyer will be entitled to a percentage of any settlement or verdict they obtain for you. This means you won’t pay out of pocket for your lawyer under any circumstance.
- An attorney will waste no time pursuing compensation for you: You may be busy with doctors’ appointments and other personal responsibilities. A lawyer will have a clear pathway to fight for the money you deserve. A lawyer’s existing knowledge of insurance claims and lawsuits will allow them to proceed without hesitation.
- Your law firm will invest in your case: Law firms have a significant financial incentive to win for you. Therefore, your firm should invest in your case. This can mean hiring experts, which you might not otherwise have the means to do.
- You deserve protection and the space to recover: Your lawyer will deal with insurance companies, including any bad-faith practices the insurers deploy against you. This protection is priceless. Your lawyer’s representation will also give you the space to focus on recovery.
You didn’t deserve to be in a car accident. You do deserve justice. Allow a lawyer to use their experience, knowledge of insurance rules and state laws, and financial resources to help you.
Steps Lawyers Take to Secure Money for Car Accident Victims
Car accident attorneys often build cases in a step-by-step process, though they must sometimes juggle many responsibilities at once. The typical sequence for a car accident case includes:
Taking Over All Communications for You
Attorneys serve as the middleman between their clients and insurance companies. They handle communications because:
- Insurance companies sometimes deceive, mislead, and trick accident victims for their own financial gain
- Your attorney will need to ensure the claims process moves ahead as quickly as possible
- Lawyers want total control of a case, and this ownership also allows their client to focus on recovery
It may be a relief to have the claims process out of your hands.
Securing Evidence That Details Your Car Accident
Car accident lawyers prove who caused their client’s accident. When they have proven fault, they can determine who is financially liable for the client’s losses.
Video of the accident, eyewitness accounts, experts’ reconstructions of the collision, and many other types of evidence may be critical to your case.
Negotiating with Insurance Companies
Most car accident victims seek compensation from one or more insurance companies. Your attorney will:
- Confirm that filing one or more insurance claims is the right strategy
- Identify the insurers that owe you compensation (perhaps by reviewing relevant policies)
- Pinpoint exactly how much money each insurer owes you
- Arrange and complete settlement negotiations with each insurance provider
Insurance providers may concur with your lawyer’s settlement demands, though there’s a significant chance they’ll try to pay less money than you deserve—this is when negotiations become necessary.
Filing a Lawsuit if No Fair Offer Arrives (and You Want to Sue)
Car accident victims sometimes choose to file lawsuits when:
- They are hit by an uninsured motorist
- Coverage limits within insurance policies are lower than the cost of the claimant’s losses
- Insurance companies don’t negotiate in good faith, instead lowballing the claimant
- Other circumstances make a lawsuit necessary
Lawyers are dynamic. Whether you choose to file personal injury lawsuits or go no further than an insurance claim, your attorney will be capable of resolving your case.
Going to Court, If You Choose To
You and your lawyer may mutually agree that trial is necessary. These decisions generally happen following multiple rounds of settlement negotiations (and the filing of a lawsuit). If your case goes to court, your attorney and their team will lead and manage every aspect of your trial.
Your attorney will monitor your recovery, speak with your doctors, and consult their experts. Before they can advise you that a settlement offer is fair (or not), your lawyer must know:
- The prognosis for your recovery
- Whether you have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI)
- Whether you have overcome your pain and suffering
- The financial cost of any future medical care, mental health services, income losses, and non-economic damages you will endure
You should never sign a release agreement until you’re 100 percent sure that a settlement offer is fair. A lawyer will ensure you only accept a settlement covering current and future losses.
There May Be Strict Deadlines for Your Car Accident Case
There is a filing deadline, called a statue of limitation, for any personal injury or wrongful death case you decide to file. A personal injury attorney will know these deadlines.
How Much Will It Cost to Hire An Attorney?
Remember that there is no financial pressure when you hire a car accident attorney. The law firm will start and finish your case without asking for payment from you. If they negotiate a fair settlement or convince a jury to award you compensation, your lawyer will receive their fee.
Speak To A Car Accident Attorney Near You
Start looking for your Florida personal injury lawyer today, and hire a qualified firm as soon as possible to obtain the compensation you deserve.
James Wayne Holliday
James Wayne Holliday has been practicing law since 1995. He has been named as a “Best Attorney” Lifetime Charter Member in Florida, an honor awarded to less than one percent of the nation’s lawyers.
Mr. Holliday has earned a reputation as a relentless trial lawyer because of his outstanding work ethic and thorough preparation of his cases for trial.
Author's Bio
