A personal injury settlement for pain and suffering can help accident victims ease the financial and personal burden they face because of their injury. Following a serious accident, pain and suffering symptoms may not appear immediately and may continue for months. Although it is easy to calculate certain damages such as property damage, it can be difficult to determine the value you must place on your pain and suffering. This is the reason you need one of the best Philadelphia, PA personal injury attorneys to guide you when considering making a claim for this damage.
Kinds of Damages in Personal Injury Cases
If you sustained an injury you want to file a claim for, the at-fault party should pay for the resulting damages. Such damages are categorized into economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include real financial losses such as medical bills, property damage, lost wages, and rehabilitation you may face following a personal injury. Meanwhile, non-economic damages are subjective and based on unquantifiable damages. They include pain and suffering and emotional distress. Calculating these damages involves considering several factors.
Settlement for Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages can help you restore your normal life and assist with the economic effect of your rehab and adjustment to a new life after sustaining an injury. You may suffer these damages after sustaining mobility challenges, impaired cognitive state, or disfigurement that changed your quality of life. Calculating pain and suffering damages is done using any of the following methods:
- Per-day amount. This means putting a per-day amount on your injury compensation. Then, this amount is multiplied by the number of days from the day you suffered the injury until you recover from the resulting pain and suffering.
- Multiplier. This means multiplying damages to a set rate to determine pain and suffering compensation. Such a rate is set by insurers, which often fall between 1X to 5X.
Both methods provide a path towards just compensation; however, the insurance company’s lawyer will work to keep such numbers low to decrease the money the company pays for your pain and suffering.
Factors that Impact Your Pain and Suffering Settlement
Although either calculation method may be utilized, the final figures assigned to each can increase or decrease based on several factors. This can be determined by considering the seriousness and extent of your injuries, the length of time your injury covers, and its effects on your life. When assessing such criteria, lawyers and the court use different sources of evidence on which they base their decision. These include medical records, statements, journals, third-party photos, testimony, and others.
