An accidental injury may result in significant lost wages and expensive medical bills, but the damage often goes much deeper. Personal injury law allows anyone injured due to the carelessness or intentional actions of someone else to pursue compensation for all of their losses, including the emotional trauma and physical pain they’ve experienced. Putting a dollar amount on your pain and suffering may seem impossible, but insurers and attorneys do have methods for compensating victims.

What Is Pain & Suffering?

Pain and suffering belongs to a category of losses known as general damages, which covers the nonmonetary impact of your injuries. These funds are intended to cover not just the physical trauma you’ve experienced but also the psychological and emotional aftereffects, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and loss of enjoyment due to your traumatic experience. Even if your injuries were relatively minor, personal injury law allows you to pursue additional compensation on top of your medical bills and lost wages.

How Is Pain & Suffering Calculated?

Many insurers use complex computer algorithms to calculate a pain and suffering award, based mostly on the severity and duration of the injury. Attorneys, however, often use a multiplier approach, which involves multiplying a victim’s monetary losses by a number between one and five, with higher multipliers for more severe injuries. Others might assign a monetary value to each day of suffering and then multiply that number by the total number of days your recovery took. Personal injury law doesn’t mandate the use of any particular methods, so your final award may depend a good deal on the skill and expertise of your accident attorney.

If you’ve been hurt in an accident, you deserve aggressive legal representation from an attorney with extensive personal injury law experience. The Privette Law Office has been representing accident victims throughout Howell County, MO, since 1984, with the expertise to ensure you get every dollar you deserve. Visit their website for an overview of their practice areas, or call (417) 469-3535 to discuss your case and schedule a consultation with a skilled attorney.