How do you figure out how much is pain and suffering worth? It’s not like there’s a receipt for it or an easy way to calculate it.
It’s different for everyone. Some people might bounce back in no time, while others might struggle with pain for months or even longer.
It’s one reason you might need a personal injury lawyer to guide you. There are a couple of ways to calculate it, and the lawyer knows about it. They can also help you deal with all the complications that arise during a personal injury claim.
Let’s break down the two main ways to do this and why it’s important to get it right.
How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated?
Figuring out how much pain and suffering is worth doesn’t have an exact formula, but there are two common ways to calculate it: the multiplier method and the per diem method.
The Multiplier Method
The multiplier method works like this: It takes your actual costs, like medical bills or money you lost from not being able to work, and multiplies that by a number, usually between 1.5 and 5. The more serious your pain or suffering, the higher the number.
So, if your medical bills were $10,000 and they used a multiplier of 3, you’d get $30,000 for pain and suffering.
Per Diem Method
The per diem method is different. “Per diem” just means “per day.”
For this method, they decide how much your daily pain is worth (usually established by your daily wage); let’s say $25 a day. Then, they multiply that by the number of days you’ve been dealing with it. So, if you’ve been in pain for 100 days, that would be $25 times 100 days, which equals $2500.
Importance of Calculating Pain and Suffering
It is important to calculate one’s pain and suffering for the following reasons.
- It accounts for how an injury can change or affect a person’s physical, emotional, and social life.
- It recognizes an injury’s effect on a person’s quality of life.
- It helps cover the cost of medical bills.
How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help You
Figuring out how much your pain and suffering is worth after an accident can be very tricky. It’s not as simple as just adding up numbers. A lot of people try to do it themselves, and they end up making mistakes.
The sad part about that is they could actually be leaving a lot of money behind, money they need.
You only get one chance to ask for compensation. Once your case is settled, you can’t go back and ask for more if it turns out you didn’t get enough to cover everything. That’s why it’s so important to hire a personal injury attorney. They know how to handle all the complicated stuff, like figuring out what you’re owed and dealing with insurance companies, so that you can focus on getting better.
When hiring an attorney for something as critical and sensitive as collecting emotional damages, you should get someone who’s really good at what they do and knows how to get you the best results.