Pain and suffering damages, critical parts of personal injury damages, compensate accident victims for their physical and emotional pain. Civil courts and auto insurance companies calculate pain and suffering damages in multiple ways. Below are some of these methods.
Per Diem Method
In this case, the court compensates your pain and suffering with an amount equivalent to the daily value of your pain and suffering times the number of days of your suffering. Say the court determines your daily suffering as being worth $100, and you suffer or are expected to suffer for one year. You should expect compensation worth $100 times 365 days or $36,500.
In this case, your pain and suffering's duration plus the daily value of your pain and suffering determines your compensation. As such, you may increase your pain and suffering damages by proving that your injuries are long-term or permanent.
For example, an amputation is a permanent injury that attracts pain and suffering for the rest of your life. Thus, as an amputee, you should get compensation for each day for the remainder of your expected life expectancy.
Multiplier Method
With this method, your pain and suffering compensation is a factor of your economic damages. The economic damages include the actual money you have lost or stand to lose due to your accident. Economic damages include medical bills, lost wages, transport, and rehabilitation costs.
The court will multiply your economic damages with the multiplier number. The multiplier number, which ranges from 1.5 to 5, represents the degree of your pain and suffering. The more the court values your pain and suffering, the higher the multiplier. For example, traumatic brain injury (TBI) may attract a higher multiplier than an ankle sprain.
Alternative Methods
The above methods are the most popular, but some courts have alternative methods. For example, some courts may allow you to assign dollar values to convert your non-economic damages to economic damages. For example, if your pain and suffering mean you cannot care for your flower garden, you may get a compensation package to allow you to pay a gardener.
Some parties, such as insurance companies, also use algorithms to determine pain and suffering damages. The algorithms consider the nature of your injuries, recovery times, age, and profession to calculate how much you deserve for your pain and suffering.
Whichever method applies to your case, the main thing is to get the compensation you deserve. Contact a personal injury lawyer to learn more.
