After the accident, your life changed.

Maybe you can’t walk without cringing, make varsity or play music like you could before. Perhaps you can’t carry your child or hug a loved one again. Or maybe you just can’t seem to fall asleep, get over the trauma and move on from the incident.

These are some of the injuries that medical bills do not reflect. However, the emotional hurt is just as real and painful as the physical one, and deserves to be considered in your final settlement.

Question is, how do you put a dollar amount on it?

While physical losses can be easily calculated using your medical bills and the number of days that you have missed work, the more abstract losses like pain and Suffering are a different story. The cost of counseling and therapy is a start, but may not be enough. Putting a monetary value on the pain and distress that you have gone through might be complicated but is absolutely necessary if you want your settlement to seem fair.

Even if there are no bills that can measure it to a tee, the mental and emotional trauma should not be ignored in your final settlement, particularly if someone else was the cause of all of it.

Factors that determine pain and suffering

Whether you have been involved in a highly traumatic car accident or lost a loved one to malpractice, here are some factors to consider when valuing your pain and suffering damages.

• Severity 

Your pain and suffering can be somewhat appreciated by how severe your injuries are. A person who has broken an arm may be experiencing lesser pain and trauma than someone with a spinal cord Injury or an amputation.

• Healing time

The longer it takes for your injuries to heal, the more you are owed in settlement recovery. Those who have suffered permanent damages like loss of motor control or chronic back pains can get a higher amount than someone whose arm will be good to go in a few months’ time.

• Treatment required

While this can, to some extent, be measured by anticipating future medical expenses, the actual nature of treatment can be taken into consideration as well. For example, someone who has to go through long hours of rehabilitation deserves to recover more than a patient who only needs pain medication and rest to heal.

• Personal impact

How did the injury affect or inconvenience you on a personal level? Maybe it has gotten in the way of your ability to do the things you love or achieve your goals. Consider your demographic features as well. An 80-year-old with a broken bone is likely to recover more in pain and suffering losses than a 30-year-old with the same injury because these injuries are more difficult to endure and take much longer to heal at a senior age. Remember that this does not consider the measurable loss of income, in which the 30-year-old is likely to recover much more.

• Lifestyle

Compensation is meant to cover the entire difference in the quality of life before and after the injury occurred. Thus, if a low-income worker who takes the bus to work every day suffers a leg injury that inconveniences him more than a high-income manager with a personal driver, he is likely to recover more even though his lost income damages are lesser.

• Social impact

This considers the effect that your injury has on your relationships and your place in society. For example, an injury that renders a father incapable of attending his daughter’s recital would recover a little more than a father who still can.

Other factors include the location, attorney, quality of evidence, witnesses, past injuries and treatment, likability of the plaintiff, the jurors and more. To consider all the factors in the simplest way possible, there are two main methods used by adjusters and lawyers.

Methods for calculating pain and suffering

The factors above give a fair idea of how much or how little you deserve to recover in pain and suffering losses. Of course, they are highly subjective and open to debate between you, or your attorney and the insurance adjuster. This is when we use certain techniques that help in estimating a dollar value.

• The multiplier method

The multiplier method is based on a simple formula:

Medical bills x Multiplier + total economic (calculable) damages = value of your claim

The multiplier considers all the factors we discussed above and is a number between 1.5 and 5, with 5 being the most severe pain and suffering. It estimates the worth of your pain as a multiple of the medical expenses you have, and still have to incur.

For example, if you have $5,000 to be paid in total medical expenses for an arm injury that has put a damper on your promising basketball career, your multiplier might be 3, and the value of your pain and suffering would be $15,000. Your total settlement should be more than $20,000.

All that is left then, is reaching an agreement with the insurance company about what the multiplier number should be. The adjuster will try to make it as low as possible. If a lawsuit is filed, then the amount would be decided by a jury.

• The per diem method

Latin for ‘per day,’ the per diem method considers a certain dollar amount that is calculated for every day between the time of the accident and the time you reach maximum medical recovery.

For example, if you value your total damages suffered at about $150 each day and estimate that you would be fully recovered three months from now (92 days), then your settlement should be around $13,800.

However, you or your attorney and the insurance company must agree on the per day amount. The company will try to reduce it as much as possible and if a lawsuit is filed, the jury will determine it for you.

Some insurance companies may use an injury claim calculator or other computer software to determine the value of your pain and suffering and final settlement. They may rationalize a lower offer by denying that your injury has affected you as much as you believe it has and negating some of the factors that you consider, including personal inconvenience and social strain. Remember that no matter what they say, they will try to reduce your payout to retain as much profit as possible. They are a business at the end of the day.

This is where a personal injury attorney can help. Lawyers will always go for the maximum amount possible by looking for tangible evidence in your favor including documentation, expert opinions and witnesses who can attest to the loss of quality in your life.

If you are considering suing the person who hurt you out of carelessness or intent, we are offering a free consultation to give you the advice you need. All you have to do is make a phone call or send us the online form. You are also welcome to leave us a question, opinion or experience in the comments below.

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