Posted on Monday, December 21st, 2015 at 5:41 pm
When you are injured in an accident caused by another party, you incur financial damages such as medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and other out-of-pocket expenses. These are typical losses that most people experience when injured in a slip and fall accident, car crash, truck accident, medical malpractice, bicycle crash, pedestrian accident, defective product case, and other types of personal injury claims. Insurance companies for the at-fault party should reimburse you for these amounts. Insurance companies should also compensate victims for their pain and suffering.
When you are injured, you also suffer non-economic damages. Most people refer to these damages as “pain and suffering.” Your pain and suffering is just as much of a loss as your income and property damage. You are entitled to receive compensation for non-economic losses from the negligent party for your emotional stress, physical pain, and mental anguish.
When Can I Sue for Pain and Suffering in a
California Personal Injury Case?
If you suffer pain and suffering, you can include this damage in your personal injury lawsuit. Because “pain and suffering” is subjective and different for each person, it can be difficult to define “pain and suffering” for each person. Examples of damages that fall under the category of pain and suffering include:
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Physical pain
- Mental anguish from the loss of a loved one
- Anxiety, stress, and depression
- Permanent scars and disfigurement
- Emotional suffering
How Do You Calculate Pain and Suffering?
Unfortunately, no amount of money will relieve the emotional suffering and physical pain you endure because of another party’s reckless, careless, or negligent act. In just a matter of seconds, your life and the lives of your entire family can change forever due to no fault of your own. Because the law cannot restore you to the same condition you were in prior to the accident, the only relief the law can provide is a monetary award for your non-economic losses.
Calculating pain and suffering is not simple. Your suffering is much different from another person’s suffering even if you have the identical physical injuries. We must turn a person’s suffering into a dollar figure. California’s personal injury laws do not provide a formula for calculating pain and suffering; therefore, attorneys must use factors such as the severity of the injury; whether your injury has caused a permanent disability; the time required for recovery; the circumstances of the accident; and, how your injury has negatively affected your life to determine an amount to claim for pain and suffering.
An experienced California personal injury lawyer understands how to take these factors and translate them into a dollar figure. Our office has extensive experience translating your pain and suffering into a monetary figure so that you receive the compensation you deserve for your losses.
Contact Tiemann Law Firm for your free consultation with one of our Sacramento personal injury attorneys. Call our toll free number at (916) 999-9000 or chat with a representative on our website. We want you to receive justice from the party who caused you to suffer.
