What Are Pain and Suffering Damages, and How to Deal with Them?
Only someone who has suffered from an accident knows its pain and suffering like physical damage, pain, mental agony, and emotional stress.
The piling hospital and medical bills don’t help improve things, making you wonder how and for which damages you can claim compensation. It is worth considering as not all personal injury matters are eligible for a claim for pain and suffering damages.
You can claim compensation only if you prove that someone’s carelessness and negligence caused your pain. And this is something better done with the help of a personal injury lawyer.
This article gives you a basic understanding of the pain and suffering damages available and how to prove them.
Multiple Pain and Suffering Damages
The main reason it’s challenging to ascertain pain and suffering damages is that it’s subjective and difficult to predict. This is unlike the economic damages you incur, like lost income and bills, which can be easily calculated and proven.
A Glendale personal injury lawyer, however, will be able to give a rough estimate of these pain and suffering damages incurred:
1. Physical pain
You can file for physical pain compensation for the discomfort and pain of the injury. This claim will be in addition to your medical bills, other expenses, and past and possible future pain you may experience.
2. Scarring, disability, or disfigurement
You could claim this damage if the injury induces permanent changes in your looks, like scars, disabilities, or disfigurement. The amount you can claim depends on the wound and disfigurement endured.
For example, body amputation and permanent disability justify significant compensation compared to surgical scars due to stitches.
3. Loss of companionship
Loss of companionship or lost companionship is the marriage-related benefits the victim’s spouse no longer experiences. Examples are lost intimacy and care and the other spouse’s burden of caring for the injured spouse.
4. Loss of enjoyment of life
This is the loss of not being able to indulge in your regular hobbies and activities. You can hold the negligent party accountable if you cannot enjoy activities you used to appreciate because of the accident.
5. Mental or emotional suffering
Mental or emotional suffering compensates for all the emotional and cognitive losses you go through. It includes depression, anxiety, anguish, grief, humiliation, fright, and shock, the typical responses to trauma.
You must document your mental health after the personal injury and sometimes even provide medical evidence to prove the claim.
6. Loss of sexual function
Sexual function is as necessary to humans as eating and breathing. So you can hold the liable party accountable if you lose your ability to perform sexually because of the accident. This includes loss of pleasure or arousal you used to enjoy before the accident.
7. Inconvenience or ordeal
You can also claim compensation for the ordeal of the accident, like treatments, doctor visits, and filing the insurance paperwork.
Proving Pain and Suffering Damages
As mentioned earlier, submitting some admissible evidence helps support your pain and suffering damages in court. In addition to the hospital, doctors, police, and medication records, other valuable evidence includes:
- Psychological reports and notes
- Testimonies from friends and families
- Your personal journal
- Your testimony of how the injuries affect your life
How Your Personal Injury Attorney in Glendale Can Help
You may forget important points or fail to get the proper documents as proof. And it’s understandable as you are going through so much pain and suffering.
Instead of making mistakes, it is worth hiring a personal injury attorney to fight your legal battles on your behalf. They will represent you while you recover and do their best to get you your rightfully deserved compensation.