Navigating a personal injury case can be daunting, especially when it comes to establishing the extent of your pain and suffering. Often, the term “pain and suffering” is thrown around in the context of damage claims. Yet, understanding what it encompasses and how to prove pain and suffering is crucial for anyone seeking compensation after an injury.

Below we will dive into actionable steps for personal injury victims to quantifiably demonstrate the impact of their pain and suffering, ensuring they have the best chance at a fair settlement or judgment.

Understanding Pain and Suffering

When you’re injured due to someone else’s negligence, your physical, emotional, and psychological well-being can suffer. The legal term “pain and suffering” refers to these various forms of distress that can significantly reduce your quality of life. Here is what you should understand about pain and suffering:

Multiple Dimensions of Suffering

Pain and suffering can manifest in several ways:

• Physical Pain:  The discomfort or agony from the injury or injuries you suffered. This could be back pain from a car accident, the loss of a limb in a construction accident, or brain trauma from a fall from height.
• Mental Anguish:  Emotional distress including fear, anxiety, anger, and depression stemming from the injury. Mental pain and anguish may be represented by dealing with your own injuries after an accident, or coping with the loss of a loved one.
• Loss of Enjoyment of Life:  The deprivation of enjoying your life as you did before the incident. Examples include a triathlete who used to do three events a year but can no longer compete, or a parent who went to every baseball game but can no longer go to see their child play.
• Impact on Relationships:  Injuries can affect your ability to maintain relationships, leading to disruption or distress. Often these stressors can impact your personal and financial well being.

Why Pain and Suffering is a Vital Claim in Your Case

While it may seem more difficult to quantify compared to medical expenses or lost wages, being able to prove pain and suffering is important to the types of personal injury damages you can claim in your case. Demonstrating these damages can significantly increase the total value of your financial recovery.

Evidence to Support Pain and Suffering

Gathering compelling and irrefutable evidence is paramount to prove pain and suffering through the personal injury claim process. Here’s what to focus on:

Medical Costs Incurred

Documents that establish the financial burden of you seeking treatment for your injuries, including:

• Ambulance fees.
• Hospital stays.
• Surgical procedures.
• Physical therapy.
• Prescription medications.

Medical Records and Documentation

Detailed records that highlight the severity and nature of your injuries, such as:

• Injury Diagnoses: Diagnosis information for your injuries, ideally including ICD-10 codes.
• Medical Treatment:  Past and future treatment plans including CPT codes.
• Treatment Progress:  Notes of your condition’s progression through treatment, ideally from your provider, but also from a personal treatment journal.

Visual Injury Proof with Before and After Photos

Imagery that starkly illustrates how your life and body have been affected by your accident injuries, such as:

• Pre-Accident Pictures:  Comparisons of your affected body parts with your pre-injury state.
• Accident Injury Photos:  Pictures of injuries at their worst, typically immediately after your accident.
• Post-Treatment Pictures:  Pictures of your injuries after surgery or treatment, demonstrating scarring, abnormal skin pigmentation, or disfigurement.

Missed Work as a Quantifiable Loss

Time off work serves as an objective measure of the impact of lost wages – and future income – on your injury:

• Pay stubs.
• Timesheets.
• Employer statements.

Expert Testimony

Input from healthcare providers and other experts in their respective fields of study, such as:

• Physician accounts.
• Therapy specialists.
• Accident reconstruction experts.

Witness Statements

Corroborating testimonies by witnesses to your accident, or your condition and behavior following the accident, like:

• Observers who saw the incident unfold.
• Those who noticed changes in your behavior afterward.

Personal Journal or Diary Entries

First-hand accounts of your path to recovery or maximum medical improvement (MMI) can be powerful:

• Daily reflections on your state of pain and anguish from a journal.
• Journals or diaries kept by family members or friends.

Quantifying Pain and Suffering

Weighing the Intangible Damages

There is no straight formula to convert emotional pain into monetary value, but there are several methods commonly used to assess the damages.

Factors Considered in Assessing Damages

Various factors influence the valuation of pain and suffering, such as:

• Severity of Injury:  The more drastic, painful, severe, or noticeable the injury, the higher the expected pain and suffering.
• Recoverability:  If you will never fully recover and the injury is likely to have a long-term or permanent impact on your life, the value allocated to your pain and suffering is likely to be higher.
• Effect on Daily Life:  The more your day-to-day life is disrupted, the greater the damages.
• Impact on Career:  The potential long-term effects on your career trajectory, including missed promotions and diminished earning capacity.
• Demographic Factors:  The age and health of the victim are often taken into consideration by insurance adjusters.
• Credibility of Claimant:  Consistency and the perception that your suffering is genuine can affect the claim’s success.

Courts and Insurance Companies’ Calculation Methods

Though subjective, these entities use a variety of methods to calculate pain and suffering, including:

• Multiplier Method:  Applying a factor (typically between 1.5 and 5) to the financial losses to determine the pain and suffering component.
• Per Diem:  Assigning a daily rate – as your “earnings” for a functioning day – and multiplying it by the number of days you suffered.
• Computer Programs:  Some insurers use software that helps them arrive at a number based on the inputs they receive from jury trials and other sources. Financial and actuarial models from insurance companies are often used to assess the value of special damages (i.e., monetary damages or economic damages, like medical bills) and general damages (i.e., non-monetary or non-economic damages, like pain & suffering).

Common Challenges and Solutions to Proving Pain & Suffering Damages

Personal injury cases come with many hurdles, but they are generally not insurmountable obstacles. Being able to prove pain and suffering damages is often difficult, because no one lives within your body except for you.

Further, people tend to experience pain in very different ways, with some individuals being naturally more resilient than others. The key is to find objective means of overcoming hurdles to proving pain and suffering damages.

Some examples of hurdles you may need to overcome to prove pain and suffering damages include:

Lack of Physical Evidence

For cases where injuries are not easily visible, it becomes important to:

• Get a thorough medical examination immediately after the incident.
• Document any physical manifestations of the distress over time.
• Be consistent in pursuing all recommended treatments and therapies to reinforce your claim.

Pre-existing Conditions

If you had a prior medical condition before the accident, you can still claim and prove pain and suffering when it aggravates a pre-existing health problem. Evidence you can provide includes:

• Medical Records:  Medical records before and after the incident can demonstrate a worsening of that condition, such as a disc herniation which used to be 2mm and is now 7mm.
• Witnesses:  Reaggravation or exacerbation of prior health conditions can be demonstrated by testimonies from your regular healthcare providers with documentation in your medical records. Family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors can provide factual observations they witnessed regarding your physical condition before and after the injury.

Emotional and Psychological Pain

Demonstrating mental anguish requires more than just an expression of your emotions, as insurance companies often feel that those can be manufactured. Documenting steps you are taking to deal with emotional and psychological pain is just as crucial:

• Visits to mental health professionals.
• Counseling sessions and their records.
• Prescriptions for anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication.

Strategies for Overcoming Challenges

Deftly navigating these challenges involves:

• Crafting a consistent and compelling narrative that links your pain to the accident.
• Working closely with your attorney to counteract any skepticism from the defense.
• Demonstrating that the event significantly changed your quality of life.

Conclusion: Your Path to Prove Pain and Suffering

While it’s possible to pursue personal injury claims without an attorney, legal representation can significantly enhance the strength of your case. If you’re the victim of a personal injury accident, your experiences are valid, and your pain and suffering deserve to be acknowledged. Take the necessary steps to document every facet of your suffering, and don’t be afraid to seek the compensation you deserve.

The personal injury attorneys at Thompson Law provide FREE CONSULTATIONS. Further, we charge NO FEE unless we are able to obtain a recovery for your injury accident. We understand what to seek for pain and suffering in injury claims. Contact us today and let us help you prove pain and suffering in your case, and obtain full and fair value for your injury claim.