How to Prove Pain and Suffering in a Personal Injury Case

Pain and suffering. It’s one of the most common phrases that personal injury lawyers use. It’s often the most significant part of any accident claim. In this article, we’ll explain what pain and suffering means, how insurance companies place a value on pain and suffering, how plaintiff’s lawyers place a value on pain and suffering, and how the compensation for pain and suffering is ultimately decided – when you settle your claim and when a jury decides your claim.

What is pain and suffering in a personal injury case?

Pain and suffering refers to things like the physical pain you experience from your injuries, the interruption in your daily life, the loss of enjoyment of your life, and the mental anguish and emotional distress that results from those issues. This can include anything from your daily aches and pains and the things you can’t physically do that you could do before the accident or the things you can no longer do without experiencing pain. Your anxiety, depression, worries, and stress because you can’t enjoy your life, your job, and your family all fall under this category as well. Additionally, pain and suffering includes your concerns about whether you’ll ever be healthy again and how you’ll ever pay your bills. If you’re unable to learn new things, enjoy relationships, and perform basic tasks like eating, sleeping, walking, driving, and talking, these are also losses for which pain and suffering damages seek to compensate.

How does pain and suffering differ from other personal injury damages?

Pain and suffering is one part of the damages in a personal injury claim. The key components of every personal injury case are the following:

Your economic damages:

• Your medical expenses
• The income you lose because your injuries prevent you from working
• Any property damage, such as damage to your car

Your non-economic damages:

• Your pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Loss of consortium (enjoyment of marital relations)
• Other personal damages

Economic damages are calculated by examining the actual or reasonably likely bills for your medical care, your weekly, monthly, or yearly pay, and the repair bills or appraisals for your property damage.

There is no precise calculation for pain and suffering or other non-economic damages. Instead, the amount of pain and suffering you receive is negotiated between us and the insurance company (with your approval) or determined by a jury based on the consideration of many different factors, including:

• The type of injury/injuries you have
• The type of medical care you will need, including surgeries, hospital stays, physical therapy and other types of rehabilitative care, psychological counseling, and assistive technology/devices
• How long you need to receive medical attention from your doctors to improve your health
• How long you need to receive medical attention from your doctors to keep your health from worsening
• What you cannot do that you could do before a car accident, oil field accident, birth injury, slip and fall, nursing home abuse, sexual assault, or other type of accident occurs

In Nevada, accident victims can seek pain and suffering if they file a personal injury claim. Workers’ compensation does not include pain and suffering, which is why our Las Vegas and Reno lawyers work to show injured workers that they have a third-party claim.

What methods are used to place a value on pain and suffering?

When trying to place a value on pain and suffering, our attorneys look at our past results in similar cases, the information we receive from focus groups, and the information we obtain from big data studies. Big data studies are the future of personal injury law and consist of large focus groups involving hundreds of people. These studies provide us with vast amounts of information that we use when preparing cases for trial and/or settlement. Our founding partner, Sean Claggett, is at the forefront of these techniques and wrote the book on the use of big data focus groups. While no focus group or big data study can guarantee a win at trial, the information we receive places us in a position where we have measurable data to analyze your case. We no longer have to guess or use outdated methods to determine what to ask for your pain and suffering damages when trying to settle your case or when taking your case to trial.

The negotiation of pain and suffering

Before we discuss negotiations with the insurance companies, our Las Vegas and Reno personal injury lawyers will investigate the causes of the accident, determine who we think is liable, review your medical care with your doctors (and our network of doctors when necessary), speak with life planners if you or a loved one has a catastrophic injury, obtain records from your employer about your income, and work with many other professionals.

When we complete our review, we prepare an “offer to settle” letter that we send to the insurance company. The offer to settle explains why their client is liable, your damages, and our offer to allow the insurance company to do the right thing and settle the case without requiring a lawsuit. Normally, the insurance company will present a counter-offer based on their review.

Generally, the negotiations continue with other offers and counter-offers until there is a settlement or until it is clear that a lawsuit is necessary. Some of the factors that determine the settlement value of your case (including the pain and suffering amount) are:

• What are the insurance policy limits?
• How strong your case is
• The likely result if your case goes to trial
• Many other factors

When presenting your case to a jury, we present evidence from different witnesses at trial to show how much pain and suffering you have experienced and will likely experience in the future. The witnesses include your healthcare providers, lifecare planners, friends and family, and you. Typically, the most important and best witnesses to prove your case are what we call “before and after witnesses.” These are witnesses who testify about how you were before the injuries and how you are after the injuries.

In Nevada, there is a cap on medical malpractice noneconomic damages. This means that your damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases are limited. Other types of personal injury cases do not have these limits on damages.

At Claggett & Sykes, we’ve helped many accident victims like you. We handle all types of injuries. Our Las Vegas and Reno personal injury lawyers have obtained more than 150 settlements and verdicts for more than $1 million dollars, including four verdicts and settlements in excess of $100 million each. Please call us or fill out our contact form to schedule a free consultation. We represent personal injury clients on a contingency fee basis.