How Does Pain And Suffering Work In Personal Injury Cases?

If you got hurt in a major accident, the first person that you need to talk to is a personal injury attorney. When you speak with your lawyer, one of the main things that they will typically want to review with you is the damages. Obviously, filing a personal injury claim means that you had some type of physical damages, but those may be only the start of the suffering that you've had to endure. The non-medical damages are often grouped together into a category called pain and suffering. Read on to learn more about how pain and suffering damages work in personal injury cases.

The Primary Damages

There are two kinds of damages that usually form the basis of a personal injury claim. The sum total of these primary damages is often used to help calculate the pain and suffering damages.

Primary damages usually include two categories:

• Hospital and Doctor Bills: Any and all medical costs directly related to your injury are included. This is often expanded to include alternative types of care like chiropractic or physical therapy.

• Lost Income: Any and all income that you lost because of your injury. This includes regular wages from your job, but may also include other types of money as long as it can be documented as lost income.

The primary damages are extremely important because they are usually your largest clearly demonstrable financial damages. Also, as mentioned above, these damages may have a major bearing on how much you get in pain and suffering damages. The pain and suffering award may be a multiple of the primary damage amount.

The Pain and Suffering Damages

The types of damages discussed above tend to cause other residual damages, and these are the damages in the pain and suffering category. Pain and suffering may include such things as:

• Physical Pain: Your injuries will typically cause considerable physical pain. Part of your compensation will often be awarded in recognition of the fact that you suffered physically.
• Emotional Suffering: When you are in physical pain that causes you to miss work, spend considerable time in a hospital, or otherwise alter your life significantly, you may suffer emotionally as a result. A portion of the pain and suffering compensation is often intended as a monetary award for this emotional suffering.
• Circumstance Changes: In cases where your life circumstances had to change because of the injury, you can get compensation for these changes. For example, if you are no longer able to care for your elderly parent due to your own injury, you could be compensated a sum equal to what hiring another caregiver would cost in recognition of this fact.

If you suffered an injury after an accident, you need to take the injury - and all its effects - seriously. Call one of the personal injury attorneys in your area such as Whiting, Hagg, Hagg, Dorsey & Hagg to learn more about how you can get compensated for all of your suffering today!