Between the trauma, expensive medical bills, and being unable to work, accident injuries can take a massive toll on your life. However, injuries cause more than just financial losses – they can also lead to tremendous mental and emotional scarring. Physical pain and mental suffering from injuries are just as legitimate as monetary losses and also deserve financial compensation.
However, pain and suffering are abstract concepts that are difficult to assign a monetary value to. Insurance companies can be skeptical of claims of pain and suffering and scrutinize them heavily. If you are pursuing pain and suffering damages through a lawsuit in Portland, an attorney from Rizk Law can assess your subjective losses and fight for the compensation your anguish deserves.
What Are Pain and Suffering Damages?
When victims file a personal injury claim, they can pursue damages for economic and non-economic losses:
- Economic damages are for losses with a specific dollar value, such as medical expenses, lost work income, reduced future earning capacity, and property damage. They provide compensation for specific, quantifiable losses.
- Non-economic damages, or pain and suffering damages, compensate victims for subjective and psychological losses due to injuries. These include actual physical pain as well as emotional or mental distress from injuries or disability.
One of the central challenges of personal injury lawsuits is proving pain and suffering losses. Unlike medical bills or lost wages, subjective losses don’t have receipts or paper records that can serve as proof. You can’t directly point to pain and suffering. Instead, you must demonstrate your injuries’ impact on your life and well-being.
Proving pain and suffering losses requires showing a substantial change in mental wellness and life quality. Evidence might include counseling notes, mental health records, personal journal entries, and testimony from family or friends.
One major mistake that injury victims make is that they have insufficient evidence of their pain and suffering. Establishing a relationship with a mental health professional can be good for your mental state and will also provide proof of symptom progression for your personal injury case. Expert testimony from a relevant professional can be a powerful piece of evidence for proving the extent of your physical and psychological distress.
Common Types of Pain and Suffering in Portland Lawsuits
Oregon law defines noneconomic losses as “subjective, nonmonetary losses.” These losses include:
- Pain and mental suffering – Pain encompasses both acute and chronic physical pain, while suffering refers to immediate and lingering mental anguish from injuries. Stress from injuries can cause physical issues like sleep problems, leading to more mental suffering and pain.
- Emotional distress – Emotional distress refers to internal psychological trauma and turmoil resulting from serious injuries. Injury victims may feel great distress reliving their accident experiences and develop depression due to physical limitations. Victims with disfiguring injuries can also experience anxiety and low self-esteem due to their appearance.
- Humiliation – The circumstances of an accident or injury outcomes can cause victims to feel shame and humiliation. They might feel embarrassed about their limitations and question their worth.
- Discomfort and inconvenience – Physical impairment and disability can result in continual physical discomfort and reductions in quality of life. Disabled victims can face much more difficulty performing daily tasks, such as eating, bathing, or grooming. They may have to make significant life changes to accommodate their condition.
- Interference in activities – Injuries might prevent someone from doing activities they once enjoyed. For instance, someone who loses a leg in an accident may be unable to enjoy recreational sports or dancing anymore.
Factors That Can Affect Pain and Suffering Compensation
Various factors impact how much pain and suffering compensation you can recover in a Portland injury claim:
- Injury type and severity – Some injuries are less severe than others. For instance, a broken arm is usually not as serious as a traumatic brain injury. More severe injuries can result in greater long-term complications and, consequently, more pain and suffering compensation.
- Treatment and recovery – Treatment for your wounds might be particularly difficult and have long recovery times. Surgeries like joint replacement can take a long time to heal and have a high risk of medical complications.
- Age and occupation – Young people with permanent injuries might experience more suffering than older people with similar injuries because they will live longer. Similarly, pain and suffering assessments account for occupations, such as a college athlete losing their ability to play professionally.
- Impact on life – Another relevant factor is the impact of injuries on quality of life. Disabilities like hearing or vision loss, restricted mobility, loss of limbs, and cognitive disorders can make it much more difficult to maintain gainful employment and navigate daily life.
How Do You Calculate Pain and Suffering Compensation?
Given its subjective nature, putting a value on pain and suffering is less straightforward than calculating economic losses. Compensation for pain and suffering will depend highly on the specific circumstances of the accident and your injuries. Oregon has no statutory formula, but insurance adjusters and lawyers use a few general methods:
Computer Software
Many insurance companies use software programs with specialized calculators to determine the value of a pain and suffering claim. They may consider factors such as the location of the accident, similar court awards, and previous settlement amounts.
Multiplier Method
The multiplier method calculates noneconomic damages by multiplying economic damages by a specific multiplier, usually a number between 1.5 and 5. The exact multiplier varies depending on injury severity and other factors. For instance, if your economic damages are $100,000, and the multiplier is 1.5, your pain and suffering damages would be $150,000.
The main point of contention with this method is justifying the multiplier value. Naturally, you’ll push for a higher one while insurers will argue for a lower one.
Per Diem Method
The per diem method assigns a daily suffering value and multiplies that number by the total number of days between your injury and recovery. For example, if your daily value is $250 and the suffering period is 180 days, total pain and suffering damages would be $45,000.
A simple approach to defining a daily value is to use your actual daily income. However, this method won’t work if you’re unemployed, and it may not be ideal if you have a particularly low or high income.
These methods are just initial calculations and are not the final word on the matter. It’s good practice to get a figure from these methods, then adjust it to fit the case specifics. For instance, if the fault in the case is obvious and you have permanent injuries, you can push for a higher amount.
How a Portland Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help Maximize Your Compensation
A personal injury attorney in Portland can maximize your pain and suffering compensation by:
- Assessing your losses and accounting for short and long-term impacts
- Gathering evidence and documentation supporting your pain and suffering
- Consulting with psychiatrists, counselors, and other mental health experts
- Obtaining statements from friends, family, and colleagues
- Negotiating settlement offers with insurance companies
- Representing you in court when necessary to demand fair compensation
An attorney can also help you avoid pitfalls and mistakes, especially if insurance adjusters question your claims. It’s very easy to make an innocent comment that adjusters can interpret as evidence against your claimed suffering. An attorney can make sure that your story is consistent, giving your claims more credibility.
Contact Our Portland Injury Attorneys for Help
Pain and suffering are intangible, but that doesn’t mean they’re not real or undeserving of compensation. If someone else’s negligence caused your injuries, you can seek money to make up for your actual and subjective losses.
The attorneys from Rizk Law have decades of experience in personal injury law and a proven track record of settlements and verdicts (although each case is unique, and past results cannot guarantee future outcomes). Here is what one satisfied client had to say about our work:
“Jacqueline at Rizk Law was super helpful in advising our family. Their free consultations helped me understand the nuances of the situation and negotiate with the insurance companies to make sure we were compensated fairly. Thanks Jacqueline!” – Mike Andreyuk
As former insurance insiders, we understand the tactics big firms use to avoid paying for non-economic losses. Calculating pain and suffering damages is difficult, and pursuing them is even more so, but we can be your advocate and work towards the best possible resolution. Contact our offices online or call today for a free case consultation with a personal injury lawyer in Portland to learn more.