What are pain and suffering damages? You may wonder how much you are entitled to.
Transcript
Everybody’s heard of pain and suffering damages, but what are they? And how are they determined. Hi I’m Brad Parker, the attorney you want but hope you never need, and this is another edition of Bar Talk. Give me 90 seconds I’ll give you an answer. Come on in.
Pain and suffering damages are commonly referred to as non-economic damages. That is, they’re not easy to calculate, unlike lost wages or medical bills. Pain and suffering is for that type of pain and suffering you endure, or your loved one endures, because they’ve had a serious physical injury. For instance, a torn rotator cuff and you have to have an operation. Anyone who’s been through that knows its significant pain that’s associated. You hurt your knee, you twist your knee, you break your leg, all of those things have elements of pain and suffering and it very hard to calculate what that may be between person, to person, to person.
Some people are very good at enduring pain, other people aren’t so good. How old are you? Are you young and you’re going to bounce back from the injury? Are you a little bit older, like me, to where significant pain because of the way you walk, or trying to reach for something. All of those play a factor into how much a jury might compensate you for your pain and suffering. It depends entirely on the type of injury, your age, and the type of jury, because the juries view it differently.
Everybody has common day aches and pains and they’re not going to compensate you if that’s the type of pain and suffering they think that you have. That why it’s very important to document in the medical records the level of pain, the doctors always ask you “what’s your pain level?” The juries look to that as well.
I hope this has provided a few answers for you. I’m Brad Parker, the attorney you want but hope you never need, until next time, this has been Bar Talk. For more information about the legal process and your rights, download our free book.
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