Different Ways to Calculate ‘Pain and Suffering’ Settlements
Accidents and the injuries caused by them can have a long-lasting effect on your physical health. But no one talks about its adverse repercussions on your mental health. Unfortunate accidents or incidents can result in two types of damages, one is economic (car, property, and more) and the second is non-economic loss due to emotional trauma (unproductive days and future health issues).
To settle all types of losses, including economic and non-economic, this article will help you discover the factors and methods involved in calculating pain and suffering in Georgia.
Understanding Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering is a legal term used to denote the physical and emotional discomfort caused during and after the injury. The distress goes beyond the physical pain, including:
- Physical Injuries: The pain caused by the injuries cannot be measured, in the worst cases it challenges the tolerance levels of the human body. Moreover, it causes discomfort during the injury but lasts a lifetime in some cases.
- Sudden Change in Lifestyle: An accident is proven to be a turning point in your life. In some cases, people start their life with a new perspective. The rebirth of your life can be thankful but at the same time comes with some negative aspects that reduce the human capability to work, efficiency to perform tasks, and low self-confidence to excel in the field.
- Adverse Effects of Psychological Trauma: The physical injuries are visible, and hold the capability to get healed as soon as possible. But what about the accident that left the mental trauma behind it? It has been observed that people slip into depression, anxiety, and mental issues after regaining consciousness from the accident.
Overall, the damages include both economic and non-economic factors on the same level that require settlement.
Factors Influencing Pain and Suffering Awards
Take a look at the factors influencing the amount of the settlement that will be awarded on behalf of pain and suffering damages.
Severity of Injury
The severity of your injury is one of the prime factors that will directly impact the amount of your compensation and settlements. The more severe the injury and damages lead to experience more high medical bills for a longer time, unproductive days from the job, experience pain and suffering for a longer period, and chances to lose self-confidence.
Permanent disability or prolonged medical treatment due to the injury results in even higher amounts of lifetime settlements.
Medical Treatment
It is noteworthy that the expenses of medical treatment or the reimbursement of your medical insurance are taken under close watch to decide the amount of settlement.
Whether you just need some office visits or require getting admitted to the hospital for a longer period, the portion of the settlement will be ranged according to the bills of your medical treatment. Chances of surgery or transplants result in higher compensation.
Prognosis for Recovery
Another key factor is the amount of time you will take to completely recover from that injury’s discomfort. The longer the treatment, it will add up greater the compensation amount. Besides this, insurance companies also study and analyze the nature of the injury you have faced.
As a result, claiming for hard injuries will be worth rather than reimbursing for a normal fever.
Impact on Daily Life
No one can negotiate this factor, that accidents and severe injuries leave a long-lasting negative impact on the quality of day-to-day life. Several factors such as the inability to work in an office, living your hobbies, ticking up your bucket list adventures, and social interactions are affected by the immense effects of pain and suffering.
Emotional Distress
Emotional distress cannot be seen, but it carries half of the pain and suffering caused by the injury or unusual happening. It can cause anxiety, depression, PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), and more emotional baggage.
So in that case, the insurance companies look for the loss of quality of life due to the injury to reach the final settlement outcome.
Damage to Property
If you have faced a car accident, then the compensation amount also includes the sustained damage amount. But to claim that, you should have some evidence and proof that justifies the scene. For that photos and videos of the property damage will work or the report of the car company will add more authenticity.
That’s it! These are the factors that will influence the calculation of the amount of settlement of a personal injury.
Methods for Calculating Pain and Suffering
Unfortunately, the exact pain and suffering due to the injury cannot be measured. So, the settlement amount is proposed and agreed upon by both parties by keeping the important factors in mind.
But for more clarity, two common methods can be used to calculate the pain and suffering damages.
- The Multiplier Method: This is the most commonly used approach to calculate the settlement amount. It works by adding up all the economic damage amount (medical bills, loss of pay in work, property damage) and multiplying the result by the number. The multiplier will be determined by the aforementioned factors influencing the pain and suffering and is usually observed between 1.5 to 5.
- The Per Diem Method: The per diem approach includes paying the settlements on the average daily rate they have experienced in the injury multiplied by the number of days they have lived with the pain and suffering and mental trauma. Hence, this method can create challenges in cases of permanent disabilities due to injuries.
Both of these factors are proven to be effective in calculating the sum of settlements in personal injury cases.
Case Law and Precedent Affects the Settlement Assessment
In Georgia, it has been observed that the court generally uses case law and precedent to finalize the appropriate amount of compensation in personal injury cases. Besides all the factors, this is also counted as one of the primes.
To determine your case value, the court takes a close watch of the past cases and similar histories to establish a framework for your case. In addition, factors such as the nature of the injury, and its impact on lifestyle are also taken into consideration while applying precedent in the current case assessment. Overall, the personal injury compensation case requires a lot of thorough research and observation to reach out a satisfying final verdict for the victim.
Lastly, the settlement amount of the personal injury case undergoes a lot of assessment and is affected by several factors to reach a final figure that compensates the victim’s losses.
