“Pain and suffering” is a term that lawyers and courts use to refer to damages you can receive in many injury lawsuits. Instead of covering the costs of medical treatment, lost wages, or other results from injuries, pain and suffering damages compensate you directly for the physical pain and mental suffering you face after being involved in an accident – physical discomfort, fear, stress, reduced enjoyment, and other effects. In most car accidents that involve moderate to severe injuries, you can typically claim pain and suffering damages in a lawsuit. Fayetteville car accident lawyer Ken Kieklak explains how these damages are calculated and how to claim these damages as part of a car accident case.
When Can I Get Pain and Suffering Damages in a Car Crash Lawsuit?
The main goal of a lawsuit is to make the victim “whole” again, to the best of the court’s ability. The ultimate goal is to put the victim back to where they were before the defendant interfered by paying for things like the medical bills, vehicle damage, and other results of the crash. With lawsuits for breach of contract or vehicle damage, money can be used to make up for losses or to pay for repairs, but with physical injuries, compensation is far more complex. Despite this, you can still claim damages for pain and suffering after most car accident injuries.
There are two main areas of compensation you can claim as “damages” in most personal injury lawsuits: economic and noneconomic damages. In car accident injury cases, economic damages cover the financial harms you faced because of the defendant’s actions, including the following:
- Medical expenses for surgeries, hospital stays, X-Rays, physical therapy, and other medical care
- Lost wages if the injuries keep you from working
- Wages you will miss in the future if your injury causes disabilities or permanent injuries
- The cost of counseling or therapy resulting from the pain or trauma
- The cost of vehicle repairs
- Other expenses you face because of the accident
Proving these damages usually means using receipts, bills, statements, and other financial information to show a record of the costs you faced. Financial experts can also project future costs in your case, and you can claim these as well.
Noneconomic damages are more complicated. It is difficult to put a price on the physical pain and mental suffering you faced because that pain is personal to you and no one else understands your experience exactly as you do. Still, you can testify in court and discuss the injuries you received, how they felt, and how they affected your life to claim them in court.
Despite the fact that these damages are somewhat difficult to show a jury, you can certainly claim them in a lawsuit for personal injury after a car crash. However, these injuries are typically only available in a lawsuit. It is likely that if you file your case as an insurance claim instead of a lawsuit, the insurance company will not cover pain and suffering damages.
What is My Car Accident Pain and Suffering Worth in Arkansas?
As mentioned, it is difficult to assign a price to your pain and suffering damages. Moreover, it is nearly impossible to determine what your pain and suffering is worth without examining your case. Each case is different, with different injuries yielding different pain and suffering damages, and each person also experiences their pain and suffering differently. It is important to work with an attorney to help you understand what your pain and suffering is worth and how to maximize these damages in your lawsuit.
First, it is vital to understand how much is typically paid for pain and suffering. The damages you can receive typically depend on the injury you sustained and the effects the injury had. While each person’s individual experience with pain is different, it is usually true that more severe injuries come with more severe pain and higher levels of suffering. Because of this, permanent injuries or catastrophic injuries like brain trauma, spinal cord injuries, and severe broken bones are typically worth more than concussions, whiplash, or minor broken bones.
Talking about the effects the injury had on your life is typically how you prove the severity and demonstrate to a jury that you deserve substantial compensation. As part of proving their pain and suffering damages, victims typically include details about how the injury impacted their life, particularly in how it caused any of these effects:
- Inability to care for yourself
- Inability to get around on your own
- Chronic pain
- Physical limitations or disabilities
- Loss of intimacy
- Loss of enjoyment in life or activities you used to enjoy
- Inability to participate in activities you used to enjoy
A greater number of effects and more severe effects typically demonstrate to a jury that the injury was severe. By using clear examples of the effects on your life, a jury can more easily understand the severity of the injury and your suffering from it.
Your attorney can help you decide how much to claim in pain and suffering damages, then argue for these damages in court.
Call Our Fayetteville Car Accident Lawyer for a Free Legal Consultation
If you were injured in a car crash in Arkansas and now face severe pain and suffering from your injuries, talk to Ken Kieklak, Attorney at Law, about filing an injury lawsuit for pain and suffering damages. Ken Kieklak is a Fayetteville AR personal injury lawyer that fights for injury victims and their families to get them compensation after car accidents and other traumatic injuries. For a free legal consultation on your case, call our law offices at (479) 316-0438.