Pain and Suffering from a Car Accident

Car accidents are scary and can have a long-lasting effect on us. From changing the way that we live, drive, walk, interact, to causing aches and pains which may stay with us forever. Car accidents have many permanent effects depending on the severity of the accident. Any motorist in California or Nevada knows that when you are driving on the road, there is always a chance that you could become involved in a car accident.

While most of us will be lucky to walk away from a car accident with only some minor scrapes and bruises, some motorists find themselves in a position where they have pain lasting days, weeks, and even months after their car accident. These lasting physical and emotional effects that can come with the trauma of being in a car accident are commonly referred to as “pain and suffering.”

What are Pain and Suffering?

Specifically, pain and suffering is the physical discomfort and emotional distress that usually accompanies an injury that is suffered, in this case, as the result of a car accident.

Motorists who find themselves in a position where they are experiencing pain and suffering after a car accident could be entitled to compensation for:

1. Pain and discomfort which is caused by your injury
2. Impairment or loss of physical abilities (such as loving ability to move, or losing sight)
3. Other bodily harms such as damage to an internal organ or structure
4. Illness caused by the accident
5. Emotional distress caused by fear, anxiety, or loss of freedom connected to a loss that could have been suffered as a result of the accident.

Each of these different types of pain and suffering could seem nebulous and difficult to define exactly. Injuries also affect different people in different types of ways depending on their age, sex, prior health and physical condition, and habits.

While defining and proving all of these terms may seem difficult to do, attorney’s such as the ones at Heidari Law Group are qualified and possess the experience and knowledge to prove each of these different types of injuries as they apply to you should you find yourself injured in a car accident in California or Nevada.

How do you quantify pain and suffering?

While it may be easy to put a dollar sign on things such as medical bills, or damage to your vehicle, it can be much more difficult to calculate exactly how much your pain and suffering are worth.

Usually, pain and suffering is calculated to a subjective amount, meaning that the amount is different for every individual and is decided by looking at the entire situation. Because the amount of “pain and suffering” can vary from person to person, it is difficult to calculate a number that is appropriate for all motorists who may be injured in a car accident. This means that pain and suffering would fall into a category called general damages.

Calculating damages

Generally, there is no clear-cut “formula” to see how much your pain and suffering damages may be worth. While it is the responsibility of the motorist who caused the injuries (or their insurance company) to give you the damages for your pain and suffering, the amount can be difficult to calculate. On average, an experienced personal injury attorney can help you recover much more than building your own case without an attorney.

One of the ways a jury could calculate damages caused by pain and suffering is a “per diem” method, where the jury determines how much the damages for the injury are worth as a measure of time (for example, the amount of damage caused by the injury each day), then the jury multiplies that amount by the total number of days the plaintiff was injured and will continue to be injured in order to receive the total award amount.

Generally, in order to determine an actual economic amount that pain and suffering are worth, courts will weigh a number of factors in their determination. These factors include:

• The intensity of the pain which was suffered at the moment of impact
• The pain suffered from the moment of the point of injury to the point of medical treatment
• Pain incident to medical treatment and any operations which may have been needed as a result of this injury and
• The pain suffered during hospitalization
• The pain suffered to the time of trial or settlement
• Pain currently suffered at the present time
• And future pain and suffering

In order to ensure that you are fairly compensated for your pain and suffering, it is always best to seek the advice of an attorney who is knowledgeable in personal injuries, such as the attorneys at Heidari Law Group as they possess the knowledge, expertise, and skills to ensure that you receive your just compensation, whether your accident was in Nevada or California.

If you or someone you know has been injured following, or as a result of being involved in a car accident, The Heidari Law Group can help you recover damages as a result of your pain and suffering. With offices in Fresno, California, Sacramento, California, Los Angeles, California, Irvine, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, the Heidari Law Group has qualified car accident attorneys who are experts in recovering damages for pain and suffering due to car accidents.

Regardless of whether you’ve been in a car accident in California or Nevada, the Heidari Law Group is able to assist you at every step of your recovery process and ensure that you are equipped with all the tools that you need in order to receive fair compensation. Reach out to our offices and call for a free case evaluation today!

***Disclaimer: This blog is created by Heidari Law Group for educational purposes. This article provides a general understanding of the law. It does not provide specific advice. By using this site and reading through this blog, there is no attorney-client relationship created between you and any member of Heidari Law. Further, due to the constant change of the law, some parts of the information above may no longer be good law.