Note that the best method, the most appropriate methods of calculating your rate or multiplier, and the proper negotiation of these numbers can best be determined with the help of an attorney.
After being injured in an accident caused by someone else, you will quickly find that your medical bills go up while you suffer huge setbacks due to your loss of income and earning potential. This type of financial impact is covered under the economic loss umbrella in a personal injury event. These are all of the harms you suffer that come with clear and measurable dollar amounts. However, these types of damage and setbacks aren’t the only ones that you will experience.
What about the pain it took to endure your injury or the suffering that caused the experience? These types of post-accident effects are known as non-economic damage. When you work with an experienced attorney, you can be sure that they will not rest until your non-economic damage receives the same care as your economic damage. The Jugo and Murphy law firm offers a free initial consultation to victims of personal injury in Miami to learn more about how to help calculate that damage, as well as many of the other benefits that come with working at such a reputable law firm.
Read below for how to quantify pain and suffering, and make sure you work with an attorney as soon as possible.
The multiplier method
To use the multiplier method, you and your attorney set out all of the “intangible” effects of your accident, including your pain and suffering, and place them along a continuum between 1.5 and 5 and, in rare cases, in excess of 5. Once you have one If you have reached a point on this scale that you believe accurately represents the severity of your non-economic damage, which ranges from “nonexistent” to “extreme”, take that number and multiply your total economic damage by that number .
Injury, knee, orthosis and pain HD photo by rawpixel (@rawpxel) on Unsplash.
For example, if you sustained economic damage of $ 50,000 and ended up on a multiplier of 2.5, you will be asking for non-economic damage of 50,000 x 2.5 to $ 125,000.
It may seem attractive to just apply a high number straight away, but remember that you must be able to negotiate this calculation with the accused or justify your calculations in court. Choosing a multiplier that is too high will negatively affect your credibility and therefore can be a serious disadvantage for your case.
Daily rate method
In other cases, you and your lawyer can choose to use what is known as the “daily rate” method to calculate your non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. In this method, you start by assigning a “daily rate” based on a variety of factors. Once you set that rate, multiply that rate by each day you were forced to live with the pain of your accident.
This rate can be calculated using a variety of variables. One of the most common ways to set this rate is to break your annual income down into a daily amount. For example, under normal circumstances, if you are making $ 200 a day and have suffered the pain of injury for 120 days, your daily rate will ultimately result in noneconomic damage of 120 x $ 200 = $ 24,000 noneconomic damage.
Note that the best method, the most appropriate methods of calculating your rate or multiplier, and the proper negotiation of these numbers can best be determined with the help of an attorney. Trying to depict yourself on such abstract damage can quickly become overwhelming when the insurance company pushes back and uses your inexperience to their advantage.
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