If you feel that a person or business harmed you, then you can probably sue them. When you do, you might collect money if you can force a settlement offer. You might also have a jury decide in your favor if you can provide enough evidence that indicates your version of events occurred.
You may collect economic damages, such as money to cover doctor bills or lost wages while you’re recovering following the accident or incident that hurt you. However, you might also try to get money for pain and suffering.
You should know about the common factors that affect pain and suffering damages if you’re going to sue someone. We’ll discuss those now.
What Does the Term “Pain and Suffering” Mean in Civil Cases?
The term “pain and suffering” comes up a lot in civil lawsuits. It means any pain or trauma you suffered that you can connect with the defendant’s action or inaction.
As you might expect, you might have a hard time putting a dollar amount on pain and suffering. It seems arbitrary to some degree.
You can much more easily point to a particular dollar amount that you feel the defendant owes you if you have medical bills or missed work. You can simply add up the amount and demand that they pay it.
With pain and suffering, though, you will need to use your lawyer’s expertise. Presumably, they have handled many of these cases in the past. They will know the amount that you should reasonably demand that a jury will probably endorse.
You Might Get More if You Can Demonstrate You Suffered a Permanent Injury
When trying to determine how much money you should get in a civil trial for pain and suffering, you should also probably attempt to get more if it’s clear you went through extreme physical and psychological hardship following the accident or incident that harmed you. Maybe you needed to have surgery to correct a problem the defendant caused. Perhaps you went through many months of physical therapy.
Maybe you lost a limb. Perhaps you could once do certain things with your family members or friends that you can’t do now.
All of that falls into the fairly expansive pain and suffering category. If you can explain that you will never fully recover following this injury or illness, though, it makes sense that you should get more money out of the lawsuit. You should probably get less if it seems likely that you will recover fully in the passage of time.
You Can Usually Collect Pain and Suffering Damages in Wrongful Death Suits
Maybe you’re bringing a lawsuit for someone who died. If so, that probably means you’re a family member.
You can try to collect damages for pain and suffering that you feel because you no longer have the person in your life who the defendant took from you. For instance, maybe you’re suing a drunk driver who ran a red light and hit a vehicle, killing your spouse or partner. Maybe they killed your child or a parent instead.
If so, you can probably convince the jury that you’re going through serious pain and suffering easily enough. They can likely put themselves in your shoes. They can imagine what they would feel if they ever went through something similar.
The more you stress the emotional impact this death had during your victim statement, the better your chances. You’re not necessarily trying to get more money out of the jury, though. You probably feel you need to explain what this person’s loss meant if you feel bereft and heartbroken in their absence.
Juries Usually Look at Precedent
When determining how much money they should award a plaintiff in personal injury cases, juries usually look at precedent. That’s seldom necessary if they’re attempting to calculate economic damages. As we mentioned earlier, this becomes relatively easy because you can just add up any paychecks you missed or doctor bills you had to pay.
If a jury has to deliberate how much they should give a person who experienced pain and suffering, though, they will probably spend time looking at similar cases. Because these lawsuits happen relatively often, they can almost always find a comparable situation.
They will look at the dollar amount the plaintiff got in those cases, and they may give you a similar amount. However, keep in mind that the defendant might try to settle before that happens.
They may give you a settlement offer before the courtroom part of the trial ever starts if their lawyer says it’s a good idea. You must turn over any evidence you collected during the discovery phase that you feel proves your case. If you have mountains of evidence, the defendant’s legal counsel might tell them that they should do their best to settle.
Pain and Suffering Damages Can Increase Depending on the Defendant’s Actions
You should know one additional thing when you’re thinking about going after a person or entity that you allege hurt you. You should know that pain and suffering damages will matter depending on what exactly a defendant did and the thinking that accompanied it.
Imagine you have someone who drank half a bottle of liquor and decided to drive. They flew through a red light and T-boned your vehicle in an intersection, breaking several of your bones.
In such an incident, this driver obviously acted with appalling negligence. They should have stayed off the road if they chose to drink that much.
If a jury can see that a person or company acted with negligence or even malicious intent, they might give you even more for your pain and suffering than you anticipated. The judge can also tack on some additional financial penalties if they feel the defendant acted in an incredibly irresponsible way.
Now that you know about pain and suffering damages, you can pursue them if you ever have a civil case that demands it.
