Filing a Personal Injury case, whether it was caused by a vehicular accident or a slip and fall accident, entitles you to compensation for the damages that you’ve received, provided that you are not the at-fault party in the accident. There are two types of damages that you can claim for personal injury cases; these are the economic and the non-economic damages. The first of the two is more straightforward to calculate for since this involves all of the monetary losses that you’ve suffered from the accident where you sustained injuries; items included are medical bills, property damage, lost wages, and any other expenses caused by the accident. On the other hand, non-economic damages are less tangible thus making it harder to compute for the compensation you deserve. Generally, non-economic damages refer to pain and suffering.
“Pain and Suffering” is legally defined as the physical or emotional stress stemming from an injury that you’ve sustained due to the negligence of other people. Pain and suffering may include physical factors like chronic pain and also mental and emotional distress like anxiety, fear, grief, insomnia, and even depression. Since these things cannot be measured as easily as medical bills or lost wages, it’s more complicated to compute the monetary value that you should receive as compensation.
Although there is no one concrete way of computing for the compensation that you deserve for non-economic damages, there are two methods that lawyers typically use to determine for the monetary equivalent of your pain and suffering: multiplier method and the per diem or per day method.
Multiplier method uses the compensation that you received for your economic damages and multiplies it by a certain number, usually from 1 to 5, depending on the severity of the injury. What this means is that if your economic damages are equal to $8,000 ($4,000 worth of medical bills and $4,000 worth of lost wages), and your pain and suffering lasted for just a month and did not leave you with any permanent damage, then you’ll receive $8,000 ($8,000 x 1) as non-economic damage. However, if your pain and suffering lasted for a year or more before you fully recover from your injuries and pain and suffering, and you sustained scars and other permanent damage, you might be eligible for up to $40,000 ($8,000 x 5).
Per Diem method assigns a monetary value for every day that you are suffering from the day of the accident until the day that you fully recover from your injuries and pain and suffering. For example, it was determined that the amount that you are entitled to per day is $100 and your recovery from the day of the accident till the day that you are completely recovered took one whole year, the total amount that you’ll be receiving will be $36,500 ($100 x 365).
What you must understand is that although the majority of lawyers use these methods, insurance companies are not obliged to follow these. Majority of insurance companies use computer software that calculates the amount of non-economic damages that a person is entitled to. These programs usually use the personal data of the claimant like their age, health, the type and severity of the injuries that they’ve suffered and the type of medical treatment that they used to recover from the accident.
It’s best to consult with a lawyer who specializes in Personal Injury cases to help determine the compensation that you deserve for pain and suffering. We at Hogan Injury have years of experience with personal injury claims.
Involved in a personal injury case? Contact us at Hogan Injury for expert legal advice.
None of the content on Hoganinjury.com is legal advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified lawyer. Please consult a legal professional for further information.
