Pain and suffering damages – How are they calculated (Part 1)?

January 15, 2021

Pain and suffering damages – How are they calculated (Part 1)?

Pain and suffering damages

If you or your loved one were injured because of a third party’s negligence, you could potentially receive compensation for the pain and suffering you experienced. No matter if it was a car accident, a slip-and-fall or other kind of personal injury case, you or your love one are able to pursue the at-fault party for your medical bills, lost wages and so on

Once the liability of the at-fault party is established, you (or your loved one) as the victim, will need to provide proof of your financial losses so that you could receive compensation. The financial aspect of this is known as damages.

Damages usually include medical bills (which can be easily calculated) and other non-economic aspects of the claim like pain and suffering. Now, the financial (or economic) side if your claim can easily be calculated. But the financial value of the non-economic part of the claim is not that simple.

In order to better understand the process in-depth, you should seek help from an experienced personal injury lawyer. But we will share with you some general rules on how pain and suffering are calculated. Keep in mind that there’s no specific formula which will determine the compensation for your injuries.

Personal injury calculator for pain and suffering

Many insurance companies use different calculators to estimate the settlement amount for your personal injury case, including pain and suffering part. These calculators use many different factors which they believe determine the value of your case.

However, these calculators have one serious flaw. They don’t take into consideration who is at fault and whether or not the victim is partially liable for the injuries. Partial comparative liability can significantly reduce the amount you can get for your compensation.

Settlement calculators don’t consider causation

Causation is a term you will find in personal injury law. It basically analyses whether someone’s negligence caused the injuries the plaintiff is complaining about. Many insurance companies, big or small, usually argue that the injuries in question occurred before the accident. And a calculator cannot account for this argument and whether or not how it will affect the personal injury claim.

Settlement calculator for pain and suffering are unreliable

Calculators used for personal injury settlements are misleading. Many personal injury victims were misled and poorly informed only based on the result of some calculator. For example, in some Counties the adjusters are willing to offer a higher compensation for a case that they deem a higher risk if it’s decided by a jury. But in other Counties, similar cases could yield 30-40% less because the jury verdicts might be more conservative. So the best thing is to simply ignore these calculators. In our next article, we will dive in a bit deeper in what actually is considered pain and suffering, how are they proved and so on.

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