How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated in Lawsuits?

Pain and suffering is one of the most commonly sought non-economic damages in personal injury claims. It refers to the physical and psychological effects of dealing with a serious injury sustained in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence.

Although many injury victims are aware that they can seek compensation for pain and suffering, few understand exactly how we are able to place a value on such complex damages.

The Severity of Your Injuries

Quantifying the damage of pain and suffering is no easy task. Every single case is different based on the type of injury you endured, how critical the injury was, and the aftermath of the accident.

Generally, we can place a monetary value on your pain and suffering by taking the combined total of your economic damages, or those that have directly impacted your financial status, and multiplying it by a number determined by how serious your injury was.

For example, let’s say your total economic damages were listed at $25,000 and you suffered from a traumatic brain injury that left you unable to work for a year. We might classify an injury of this nature at a level four on a scale of one to five. Then, we would multiply the $25,000 by four and place the value of your pain and suffering at $100,000.

Alternatively, we might assign you a per diem amount for each day that you are in recovery. If this number was $100, your pain and suffering would be valued at $100 times the number of days before you recovered.

Establishing That You Endured Pain and Suffering

To include pain and suffering in your total damages, we must be able to provide supporting information that describes your suffering.

For instance, we might include statements from your family and friends that speaks to what you’ve been going through, photographic evidence of your injuries and recovery process, and medical documentation of your injuries that could include reports from your medical providers if you’ve be dealing with the effects of clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It would also be wise to include your own statement that describes what you’ve been going through so the court has a better idea of how painful this experience has been for you.

Talk to a Boston Personal Injury Lawyer

To discuss the details of your case with an experienced Boston personal injury lawyer at Joel H. Schwartz, PC, simply fill out the convenient contact form we’ve provided below or give our office a call at 1-800-660-2270.