Calculate pain and suffering the right way and settle your car accident
How to calculate pain and suffering? This is a difficult and controversial topic. When you are in a car accident, the insurance company wants to obtain a written document that releases any and all claims against the person who caused your damages and injuries. To obtain that release, the insurance
adjuster should adequately compensate you.
You are entitled to special damages (medical bills, lost wages, medications, etc.) and general damages (pain and suffering, loss of consortium, physiological injuries, etc.) Most of the time, calculating special damages is not very difficult And there isn’t much debate about the value of medical bills, lost wages, and other medical expenses. You can add them all and submit your receipts. However, calculating general damages, which include pain and suffering, can be very difficult.
How much is your headache worth? It depends who you ask. If you ask the insurance adjuster, they will tell you about $5. If I ask you, then it’s probably worth a lot more than that.
Personal injury attorneys use medical bills or all “special damages” as a way to calculate general damages. Some multiply medical bills by two, others by three or even four times (depending on your
jurisdiction). This is just a general rule. The insurance adjuster will fight you and tell you that this is not an accurate way to calculate pain and suffering. There are no laws that give you a formula to calculate the value of the injury.
Simply multiplying your medical bills will not give an exact number. You could have an injury with medical bills of $2,000, but the pain and suffering would be worth much more than three or even four times that value. For example, a fifteen-year-old girl who suffers a cut on her face, leaving a scar from her eye to her chin. The medical bills for stitches and wound cleaning may not be much, but the psychological damage of growing up with such an injury could be worth much more.
Multiplying medical bills is not very accurate when assessing the value of pain and suffering, however it can serve as a guide. Remember that there are many more claims than just “pain and suffering” in a car accident. You can request loss of consortium, loss of earning capacity, loss of quality of life, etc. For a detailed list and explanation of each type of claim, visit http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/bodily-injury-claim.html. All of these claims can add up to a lot of money. Most people forget to ask for any of those types of damages. Insurance companies don’t explain the process and just want a release on any and all claims, including any damages you forgot or knew to ask for. Insurance companies do this on purpose. Be conscious.
Insurance adjusters are ready to tell you that the value of the injury is separate from the accident itself. They are trained to argue that they are settling for neck pain, not the fact that the total loss settlement
was low They try to reduce the scope of the agreement. For example, they will tell you that the fact that the driver who hit you was drunk is not taken into account because they are looking at pain and suffering. Your pain will not be more or less because someone else was drunk. If you were hit at the same speed and the
same conditions by a sober person, their pain and suffering would be the same (same impact, same injury).
The insurance adjuster would be correct; the bread would be the same. But remember that what the insurance company is doing is “buying your claim.” Would being hit by a drunk driver increase the value a jury would place on it? I think the answer is probably yes.
To get the most out of your pain and suffering, use the value of your medical bills, the circumstances surrounding the accident, the type of injury, jury awards from similar cases, and any bodily injury claims you have.
can do. Double check all the arguments that the insurance adjuster presents. Make sure you get a fair deal.