Determining the Value of Pain and Suffering in Car Accident Cases

The hardest part of asking for compensation for pain and suffering involves calculating monetary value.

With road accidents more common than ever, victims are more aware of their rights. The majority of them raise claims for damages according to personal injury law. Fortunately, many cases work in favor of car accident victims. However, some cases can get more complicated than others. One aspect that is difficult to understand is the assessment of pain and damage suffered. While these are difficult to quantify, if you’ve suffered immensely, you’ll earn them on top of the general post-accident expenses. Let’s clarify some key facts about the value of pain and suffering in car accidents.

Understand the definition of pain and harm suffered

Essentially, pain and suffering damage cover the physical, mental and emotional stress suffered by the victim as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident. Physical trauma is related to the actual injuries and includes the pain caused by treatments, therapies, and surgery. Conversely, mental agony and emotional suffering are the by-products of physical injuries. They can be just as serious, and you deserve compensation for them too. When you make a claim for pain and suffering, you get those damages in addition to medical costs, injury-related costs and lost wages.

Injury, knee, orthosis and pain HD photo by rawpixel (@rawpxel) on Unsplash.

Validity of the entitlement to pain and suffering

If you want to insure damage for the pain and suffering you may have suffered in a car accident, you must first have a valid claim. It is best to have your case assessed by a leading Jackson Mississippi personal injury attorney to determine the validity of the claim and handle the proceedings. Usually this pain must be related to the original injury. In addition, the injury must have been caused by negligence rather than your fault, as is usually the case in personal injury cases.

Calculating the monetary value of agony

The hardest part of asking for compensation for pain and suffering involves calculating monetary value. Obviously, it’s difficult to argue about and prove the validity and cost of something immaterial like pain and suffering. There is no single method of calculating fair and equitable billing, but lawyers and insurance companies generally use the following methods to evaluate:

• Multiplier method that multiplies the actual damage by a number, usually between 1 and more. The multiplier value is proportional to the severity of the violation. The higher the multiplier value, the worse the violation.
• The daily rate approach uses a daily calculator to assess the value of the damage and to compensate the victim daily from the time of the accident to recovery.

While these are the common methods, lawyers and insurance companies can rely on other calculation methods as well.

Whichever method the insurance company uses to evaluate your claim, the only thing you should focus on is getting compensation for the problems you went through. It makes sense to use the services of an experienced lawyer as they will make sure that you will not be taken along.