Calculating pain and suffering damages: Work injury cases

Hospital bills are straightforward to tally. Lost wages can be calculated down to the penny. But pain and suffering? Now that gets tricky.

The anxiety that floods over you every time you try resuming your work duties? Covered. The loss of enjoyment from activities that once brought you happiness? That matters too. But where is the line? Here are some of the most common.

Physical pain and suffering

This refers to the bodily discomfort resulting from an injury. Sometimes this pain is sharp and immediate, like from a construction site accident causing broken bones or a crushed hand. Other times it manifests as a dull, persistent ache from years of repetitive back strain or other cumulative injuries.

Either way, if the physical pain stems from a legitimate work accident and impairs your ability to function normally, it warrants compensation. Pain and suffering damages account for treatments needed to manage pain as well as concessions you must make in your lifestyle due to chronic discomfort.

Emotional and psychological suffering

An injury’s effects go beyond surface-level physical damage.

While technically “invisible,” these emotional wounds run deep and tend to scar over far slower than bodily injuries. Psychological suffering can completely change who you are. Damages attempt to account for the often lengthy treatment required to reconcile this disrupted sense of self.

Loss of enjoyment of life

Has your injury stripped activities from your life that previously brought you joy? Can you no longer play with your kids? Attend concerts with friends? Tend your garden every evening after work? Enjoy intimacy with your spouse? Loss of enjoyment damages account for these daily losses that diminish your quality of life.

Disfigurement and scarring

Some work accidents leave visible bodily damage—disfigurement and scarring serve as constant reminders. Seeing these scars whenever you glance in the mirror tells an emotional story you wish you could erase. Extensive scarring shakes confidence and fundamentally alters both self-perception and how the world perceives you.

Loss of consortium

A serious injury affects more than just you—it harms your most important relationships too. Damages for loss of consortium attempt to account for the strain your injury places on connections vital to emotional health, like relationships with:

Spouses
Children
Parents
Siblings

How the damages are calculated

The Multiplier Method

This method involves quantifying tangible, economic damages like medical bills and lost income, then multiplying that baseline dollar amount by an agreed-upon factor reflecting the severity of suffering.

For example:

Medical bills + lost wages = $100,000
Pain and suffering multiplier = 3x
Total pain and suffering damages = $300,000

So why multiply economic damages instead of just pulling a random dollar amount from thin air? Because this anchors damages to measurable losses—it ties intangible suffering to the tangible medical costs and financial hits.

The challenge lies in agreeing upon an appropriate multiplier. A workplace accident lawyer must justify why a particular multiplier applies. Factors influencing the size of the multiplier include:

Injury severity – Minor injuries warrant lower multipliers; major ones warrant higher. Spraining an ankle could merit a multiplier of 1.5x or 2x economic damages. Necessitating a spinal fusion surgery or limb amputation may merit 5x or higher.
Recovery prognosis – How long until maximum medical improvement is reached? Are you expected to fully heal or will chronic pain/dysfunction linger? The worse your long-term prognosis, the higher the multiplier.
If an injury resolved after conservative treatment in 6 months, a lower multiplier would likely apply versus lifelong back pain requiring surgery and regular pain management.
Permanency – Will you fully recover, or are impairments permanent? Permanent partial disability warrants higher multipliers to account for the lifetime impact.

Clearly defining these parameters allows for an apples-to-apples comparison when deciding upon multipliers used in similar cases. Relying on precedents set in comparable injury cases strengthens your stance during negotiations.

The Per Diem Method

The per diem method ditches the economic loss multiplier and instead assigns a daily dollar value to your suffering. Negotiators determine a reasonable per diem rate and then extrapolate over the expected duration of pain.

For example:

Daily pain and suffering rate = $500
Expected duration of pain = 200 days
Total pain and suffering damages = $100,000

This method works best for injuries with clearly defined recovery periods. BHoweverpermanent impairments complicate applying a per diem approach. That’s why combining elements of both methods often makes the most sense. You apply a per diem rate to the finite injury healing timeline then assign a multiplier to account for permanent disability impacting you for life.

Regardless of which methodology you utilize, documenting evidence backing your rates is imperative, which leads into the next section about gathering proof.

Evidence critical for proving pain and suffering claims

You can’t just ask for substantial sums for your suffering without hard evidence backing your claims. Like any legal case, you need documentation—the more proof types you can provide, the better.

Medical Records

Comprehensive medical records tell the story of your injury from the initial accident through treatment to the present day. Details like:

Date of injury
Description of accident
Diagnostic testing results
Physician pain assessments
Medications prescribed
Physical therapy referrals
Surgical procedures

Documentation builds a compelling timeline of enduring dysfunction needing extended care, strengthening the case for ongoing pain and suffering.

Key Details to Note

Pain Levels – If doctors consistently note you self-reported high pain levels during exams, this helps validate severity.
Pain Medications – Needing prescriptions like nerve medications or opioids demonstrates physicians took your pain seriously enough to warrant heavy-duty treatment.
Treatment Duration – Ongoing treatment spanning months or years indicates an injury wasn’t merely minor or transient.

In short, medical records should paint a detailed picture of sustained suffering drastically impacting the quality of life – the fundamental premise supporting significant pain and suffering damages.

Testimony from Medical Experts

Statements from medical experts who have treated you help bolster your case. A statement from an orthopedic surgeon explaining how knee damage makes it arduous to stand or walk for long periods lends credence regarding future disability. Testimony from a neuropsychologist confirming a concussion gave rise to lingering migraines and concentration deficits demonstrates a real loss of enjoyment in select activities.

These experts translate medical jargon and diagnosis codes into tangible examples of dysfunction and limitations justifying damages for years of real-life impairment.

Personal Pain Journals

You live with your suffering every single day. Detailed notes capturing your daily struggles provide invaluable first-hand perspective when combined with clinical medical records. Consider tracking metrics like:

Daily pain levels
Sleep quality
Stress/anxiety levels
Activities missed due to pain
Medications taken
Icing/heat treatments utilized

Also log instances when pain prevented participating in common life events, like:

Child’s soccer game
Wedding anniversary dinner
Family movie night
Holiday church service
Birthday party

Entries substantiating loss of enjoyment due to pain build a compelling narrative that medical codes alone often miss.

Affidavits from Family, Friends and Coworkers

Third-party accounts from those closest to you provide crucial perspective on how your injury altered engagement with everyday life. They witness the strain, withdrawal and difficulty first-hand. Statements from sources like these help validate pain and suffering claims:

Spouses detail intimacy troubles or home life disruption
Coworkers describe productivity declines
Friends note withdrawal from regular social outings
Relatives corroborate mood changes like depression

Even simple declarations of, “Joan used to walk 2 miles every morning with me until her injury,” prove powerful. They lend outside credibility regarding the scope of your mounting losses.

Psychological Evaluations

Referrals to mental health professionals can further legitimize asserted pain and suffering demands. A PTSD diagnosis from a psychologist affirms the trauma behind emotional struggles. Noting depression on a psychiatric evaluation confirms what friends and family already suspect regarding your withdrawal from normal activities.

Just remember that visible injuries like broken bones often receive immediate medical attention while trauma to self-worth and personal identity sustains quietly in the background—often undocumented without proper psychological screenings.

Why hiring a lawyer critical maximizes pain and suffering payouts

Here’s why hiring a good lawyer always proves so invaluable.

Lawyers Help Set Appropriate Expectations

Attorneys understand what realistic settlement figures look like for the full spectrum of injury types and severities. Their expertise involves tempering optimism while still fighting for every penny truly justified—they aim for fair over greedy. Counsel applies lessons from past negotiated settlements to inform reasonable demands in your unique case.

Lawyers Gather Evidence Strategically

The strongest pain and suffering demands pair irrefutable medical confirmation of injury with vivid first-hand accounts of resulting life impairment. Collecting such well-rounded evidence requires strategic coordination across multiple stakeholders.

Attorneys issue subpoenas gathering medical records
They take meticulous depositions from doctors illuminating diagnostics
They interview eyewitnesses capable of recounting accident details
They compile journals completed per their guidance

Reputable counsel leave no stone unturned when gathering data for bolstering claims for rightful coverage of all equitable damages—economic and noneconomic alike.

Lawyers Are Master Negotiators

Even rock-solid documentation won’t automatically unlock generous claim payouts. Extracting maximum settlements from insurance carriers and defense legal teams requires savvy back and forth. This means letting attorneys handle settlement conversations and negotiations so you can continue concentrating energy on recovery.

Lawyers Help Offset Permanent Damages

Settling shortly after an accident often neglects long-term medical projections.

Only lawyers plan negotiator strategist, with long-view permanency in perspective. They fight to secure not only recovery dollars already spent, but funds projected necessary based on expert analysis of your prognosis decades down the line.

Lawyers Level the Playing Field

Lastly, lawyers simply level the playing field regarding legal expertise. Top attorneys have often worked for insurance carriers themselves early in their careers, so they know which tactics to expect that prey on claimant naïveté.

You shouldn’t have to be well-versed in claims codes, court litigation or negotiating ploys just to fight for damages owed by law after an accident you didn’t cause. By handing case management over to a trusted firm, you can leave the battle to the professionals.