When people get injured in an accident, the impact is not only physical. Their emotional and mental health can also suffer. In legal terms, this is called “pain and suffering.” If you are filing a personal injury claim and want a fair amount of compensation for what you have gone through, you should not ignore this important part of your recovery.
How do you put a dollar price on pain like this? This personal injury lawyer in Mulberry, Florida is going to explain below.
What does “pain and suffering” mean?
“Pain and suffering” is both the physical pain and the emotional stress you experience after an accident. This emotional stress can be in the form of anxiety, depression, or PTSD.
In the aftermath of an accident, many people have trouble falling asleep, and many start feeling anxious in situations that used to feel completely normal before. As a result, even activities like driving or being in social settings can feel overwhelming. This kind of suffering can also affect your personal life as you might lose interest in things you once loved. You might even feel isolated and disconnected from the world around you.
There is no exact dollar value for pain and suffering because everyone experiences the aftermath of an accident differently. Two people can have the same injury, but one could recover in a few weeks, while the other could still feel the mental and physical effects months later.
How is pain and suffering calculated?
Florida does not use an established formula for calculating pain and suffering in personal injury cases. Instead, lawyers, insurance adjusters, and sometimes juries use multiplier and per diem methods to estimate a fair number.
In the multiplier method, your lawyer adds all your economic damages, like your hospital bills, physical therapy, medication, or lost income. They then pick a multiplier between 1.5 and 5 based on how intense your pain is. For example, if your economic damages are $10,000 and a multiplier of 2 to 4 is applied, that would bring your pain and suffering between $20,000 and $40,000.
In the per diem (“per day”) method, a dollar amount is assigned to every day you are in pain because of your injury. Assume that your lawyer argues that $200 per day is a fair amount for your suffering. If your recovery takes 100 days, that would equal $20,000 in pain and suffering compensation.
Both methods can bring structure to what is otherwise an emotional and subjective experience. But for your claim to be taken seriously by the insurance company and the court, your number must be supported by evidence like medical records or notes from your therapist. Without this evidence, even severe suffering can be underestimated or dismissed. An experienced personal injury lawyer in Mulberry, Florida can handle this process for you and present a clear picture of how your injury has affected your life.
Insurance companies don’t tell you everything.
Many insurance companies now use evaluation software to calculate how much an injury claim is worth. These programs are made for efficiency and cost control. They process information based on standardized inputs, like medical codes, diagnosis types, and treatment timelines. But these systems can’t really capture how injuries affect people’s everyday lives or their mental health.
This is why it’s essential to have a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer in Mulberry, Florida on your side. Your lawyer is the person who will push back against those low offers. They will gather all the medical records and witness accounts to prove what your accident has truly cost you.
Looking for a Personal Injury Lawyer in Mulberry, Florida?
If you were hurt because of someone else’s negligence and are thinking about filing a claim, you may be looking for an experienced personal injury lawyer in Mulberry, Florida who can help. In that case, look no further than Tonya Stewart and her legal team at Tonya Stewart Law PA.
We can make sure that your pain, your setbacks, and your recovery are fully recognized and fairly compensated. Contact us today at (863) 279-4473 to schedule a free consultation.