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Pain and suffering settlements are an integral component of any personal injury settlement, as they are intended to compensate injury victims who dealt with extensive pain, suffering and other life depreciating symptoms due to another person or company’s negligence. Pain and suffering is a category of damages assessed in addition to economic losses, which are things like medical bills, lost wages, mileage to and from doctors appointments, and permanent impairment or disfigurement.
At Rector Stuzynski Law Firm, our injury attorneys will never condescend to tell you what your case is worth the first time we meet you. That’s because no one can reasonably place a value on your case until all the facts become known after an introductory investigation. Things like injury severity, insurance policy limits, and other considerations all need to be factored into account before a value to a case can be assessed. Everyone’s injury case is different, and no one can tell what the end result will be from a quick phone call or brief internet article.
Pain and suffering damages are subjective by nature, so they can range from a few thousand dollars to potentially in the seven figure range, depending upon the severity of an injury. Settlements for pain and suffering can sometimes be difficult to calculate though, as they don’t have a specific value associated with them and what each person went through is different than the next injury claim.
Pain and suffering falls into the category of non-economic damages. This means that it doesn’t have a specific price tag like things such as property damage do, which would fall under the category of economic damages. Due to this, each case is handled slightly differently and documentation of the pain, suffering and hardship the victim dealt with during their recovery plays a vital role in maximizing the amount of compensation they can get. The way pain and suffering is presented to an insurance adjuster or a jury can make an enormous difference between what the company is willing to settle for, or what a jury feels appropriate to award.
Injuries can vary significantly, and the effects of those injuries, how long it took to recover, if the victim was able to fully recover, if there were lifelong disabilities as a result of the injury and how bad the injury and recovery process were are all things that will be taken into account when determining an amount that is fair to compensate the injured party. This can mean a small settlement for minor injuries that are quickly recovered from, but very large settlement amounts for victims who sustained major injuries that take a long time to recover from, especially if they will never fully recover.
Let’s take a look at some examples of different types of injuries and potential settlement amounts a personal injury lawyer may be able to recover due to the severity of the injuries and recovery. Please be aware that this article does not discuss economic damages, which are entirely different, and can be assessed in addition to non-economic, or pain and suffering damages.
In a motor vehicle accident with minor injuries such as bruises, scratches and a broken finger, the injuries and recovery process are not very severe and will generally result in a low non-economic damages compensation amount. Minor accidents without significant medical treatment can usually be settled without the assistance of an attorney, because the monetary award will not be significant enough to justify the expense of hiring one. We are always happy to advise a potential client if we feel they will be better served handling the claim on their own, so there’s no reason to hesitate calling us at 719-578-1106 for a free consultation if you have any questions.
Some car accidents seem like they’re minor, but can still lead to moderate injuries, such as back or neck pain, or persistent headaches that require some weeks or months of therapy to resolve. These cases are accompanied by medical expenses–usually a hospital visit for a checkout, and a follow up with a primary care doctor. Sometimes chiropractic care or physical therapy are required, or even pain injections. Moderate injuries usually resolve within 6 months of the accident, but sometimes can take a bit longer.
Usually an attorney can add value to a moderate injury case, because an insurance adjuster will always try to nickel and dime an accident victim by reducing the amount they will pay for medical expenses and attempting to trivialize the pain and suffering element. In these cases, it is critical to keep good notes of your pain symptoms–nights you couldn’t sleep, vacation you had to miss out on, or being unable to play with your children are just some examples of things a good accident lawyer would convey to an insurance adjuster to try to increase your compensation payout. Telling your doctors your pain level on a scale of 1-10 on each appointment date is another good way to track pain and suffering in these cases. Settlements for pain and suffering in these cases range between a few thousand dollars to a multiple of the medical bills, depending upon how difficult the recovery journey has been, and the individual experience of the injured person.
In a car accident where the victim has scarring, a broken bone, back pain and spinal cord damage, these injuries are very severe and will have a painful and extensive recovery process which will result in a larger non-economic damages settlement, due to the increased frustration, pain, and irritation attendant to the recovery. Surgeries are always difficult, and rehab is not a pleasant experience. It is again important to document the significance of your recovery journey through a pain symptom journal so the full magnitude of the pain and suffering can be conveyed to the insurance company or a jury.
Slip and fall injury cases are no different than car accidents, with one critical exception. In a slip and fall, some blame will ordinarily be apportioned to the person who fell, because of the idea that people should always be responsible to some degree to watch where they are walking.
Apportionment of fault just reduces the total amount that the other side has to pay by a percentage of the fault assessed to the injured person. By way of an example, in a negotiation, if the parties agree that the injured person was 25% at fault, and establish total damages of $100,000, then the settlement or judgment will be for $75,000. This makes it even more important to document pain and suffering in cases like this, which are generally reduced from full recovery due to the principles of comparative fault discussed above.
When a person is injured due to another person or company’s negligence and as a result, dies from their injuries, the family and loved ones of the deceased victim are entitled to pain and suffering damages stemming from the grief of their lost loved one. Colorado law places a cap on this amount, because it can vary significantly from case to case. It’s imperative to talk to a personal injury lawyer before trying to settle a wrongful death claim, due to the inherent complexities of non-economic damages caps. Depending on the nature of the injury, and the date it occurred, a settlement or jury award can vary greatly.
There are many different factors that affect how much the injured party will receive for their injuries and each personal injury case is different. Because of this, the attorneys, insurance companies and liable parties will have a lot of negotiation back and forth and the injured party’s attorney will need to prove their pain and suffering as well as how substantial the victims losses were. Let’s take a look at some of these factors so you have a better understanding.
When injuries are minor and can be recovered from quickly, with no long term effects, the settlement amounts are much smaller because the injuries they sustained and their recovery process do not largely impact their quality of life and their long term wellbeing. Also the recovery process was not as onerous as recovery from more severe injuries, which involve painful physical therapy and rehab.
When injuries are severe such as extreme physical pain, loss of limbs, spinal cord injuries, neck injuries, brain injuries, major scarring, recurring emotional distress and anything else that has long term effects to the person’s life, ability to live a normal life and ability to work, then the settlement amounts can go up drastically if presented properly. The person is no longer able to live life like a normal person and because of that, they should be compensated heavily for their life long losses. This is why these types of injuries have much higher settlement amounts.
One of the biggest factors in calculating these settlements is whether or not the victim will fully recover from their injuries or not. When a victim has major scarring on their face, loses an arm, has extensive back surgery that severely limits their abilities or anything that will not fully heal back to their normal state of being, then the settlement amount can increase by a lot.
Minor physical injuries that the accident victim will fully recover from in a short period of time won’t be compensated as much because of how little the person’s life was affected. This doesn’t mean that their injuries were not worthy of a settlement, just that they won’t be compensated as much as someone whose injuries were lifelong and will always have a negative affect on their life.
If someone’s favorite activity is running, hiking and rock climbing and they lose their leg, their life is now completely different and they will never be able to enjoy their favorite activities like they used to ever again. If a person was a professional athlete and suffered serious back injuries that prevented them from playing their favorite sport and earning a large income as a professional athlete, they will get a large payout for their injuries. Those are just a few examples of how and why more serious injuries get such larger compensation packages.
Every accident victim deserves maximum compensation and there is no fair way to put a dollar amount on what someone went through during the accident, immediately after the accident or during their recovery time. However, in personal injury lawsuits, to reach an agreed upon settlement amount, both sides need to negotiate a reasonable compensation package for the injured party and to do that, there are a few ways that personal injury attorneys and insurance companies typically handle this type of calculation.
In some states, the attorneys and insurance companies will use what is called a multiplier method to calculate how much the non-economic part of the settlement will be. This is by no means a great way to do things, but it had at one point become a popular method in the personal injury law arena.
The multiplier method first calculates all of the economic damages that someone suffered, which are all costs associated with the accident that have a price tag such as medical expenses, property damage, lost wages and so on. Then they use a multiplier of the amount of economic damages to find the amount of non-economic damages.
This method is becoming less and less common, thankfully, and for good reason. It just isn’t a reliable indicator of the value of pain and suffering. Medical bills can vary substantially depending on whether the person had insurance, no insurance, or military insurance for the same procedure. Whether an MRI costs $18 or $2,100 should not dictate the pain and suffering award for an injured person, so be wary of an insurance company attempting to use the multiplier method.
The per diem method is a different way to calculate the non-economic damages of a personal injury claim by establishing a specific amount of money for each day the victim was injured and in recovery and then multiplying that daily value by how many days the injured party was in recovery.
This can be done creatively, by assessing a hire per diem amount for months when an individual had a higher pain level, and decreasing it gradually until they have fully improved. When you think of it this way, what amount of money would be reasonable to live in a state of pain 8 out of 10 per day? This is a far more equitable way to calculate pain and suffering damages than the multiplier method discussed above.
If you have an experienced personal injury attorney on your side, they will advise you on how to make sure you can get maximum compensation from the at fault party with a few different methods that we will discuss next.
Keeping a journal of how you feel, what pain you lived through and how much that affected you on an everyday basis is a great way to be able to present proof to the at fault party of exactly what you went through. By not having this type of information, you are leaving your pain and suffering up to the imagination of the other party and they are always going to try to reduce the amount they have to pay out when possible.
In order to maximize your settlement, make sure you keep a detailed record of how bad your pain was and how much it negatively affected your life from day one until you are fully recovered.
If you had friends and family around helping you complete normal everyday tasks or even if they were just around to visit, if you explain to them what you are going through and how much your life has been negatively impacted by the injuries you sustained, then these friends and family members can make a statement on your behalf to account for how much the recovery process has affected you.
The last way to ensure maximum compensation is to make sure you reach maximum medical improvement before negotiating a settlement. Any good personal injury lawyer will advise you to do this because you should always ensure you are able to get as close to 100% recovery as possible so you don’t get stuck having to pay for future therapies out of pocket. By reaching maximum medical improvement, you will have a full tally of everything you spent on recovery as well as how that recovery process affected your life during that time
Putting all of this on record and including it as evidence makes sure that the opposing party can’t deny what you went through and get off without paying for everything that you had to go through.
Of course, as with all things in the legal realm, there are exceptions to these rules. For example, if there are medical bills approaching policy limits, it makes no sense to wait until MMI is reached before trying to settle, because it won’t increase the actual amount of money available. But this is generally good advice most of the time–you don’t want to settle your claim until you’ve completely gotten better.
If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of another person or company, Rector Stuzysnki Law Firm is your best choice for expert personal injury litigation. Our law firm has decades of experience fighting to get our clients maximum compensation for their injuries and we would be happy to go to battle for you.
Our staff is attentive and keeps you in the loop at all times so you always know what is going on with your case and our attorneys are detail oriented so they don’t miss anything. With hundreds of rave reviews from our previous clients, you can rest assured that your injury claim is in good hands when you choose to work with us.
We offer free consultations over the phone 24/7 so don’t hesitate to give us a call. Feel free to stop by our offices in Colorado Springs as well, we have two convenient locations in Downtown Colorado Springs as well as Northeast Colorado Springs.
This article was written by Michael Stuzynski of Rector Stuzynski Law Firm. Michael is a decorated personal injury attorney that has been helping Colorado Springs injury victims get compensation since 2019. With hundreds of injury settlements under his belt, he is an expert in all areas of personal injury law and litigation.
We provide legal services for personal injury and accident victims throughout the state of Colorado, but we focus on clients in these areas: Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Cimarron Hills, Northeast Colorado Springs, Southeast Colorado Springs, Stratmoor, Fort Carson, Air Force Academy, East Colorado Springs, Old Colorado City, Pleasant Valley, Broadmoor, Stratton Meadows, Fountain, Northwest Colorado Springs, Gleneagle, Northgate, Briargate, Monument, Woodmoor, Black Forest, Pueblo, Canon City, Larkspur, Security-Widefield, Peyton, Falcon, Calhan, Castle Rock, Teller County, El Paso County, Elbert County, Park County, Douglas County and nearby cities.
We serve clients injured in the following zip codes: 80907, 80909, 80918, 80917, 80931, 80932, 80933, 80934, 80935, 80936, 80937, 80941, 80942, 80946, 80947, 80949, 80950, 80960, 80962, 80977 ,80995 ,80997 80901, 80912, 80904, 80915, 80905, 80910, 80923, 80922, 80919, 80920, 80916, 80939, 80914, 80951, 80924, 80927, 80938, 80906, 80840, 80829, 80902, 80809, 80841, 80911, 80908, 80929, 80819, 80921, 80925, 80132, 80926, 80913, 80863, 80817, 80831, 80133, 80930, 80860, 80814, 80813, 80118, 80106, 80928, 80866, 80816, 80808, 80104, 80116, 81008, 80864, 80135, 81240, 81007, 80109, 81290, 80107, 80108, 80425, 81215, 81221, 80117, 80827, 81212, 80134, 80835, 81003, 80131, 81226, 81001, 80138, 80125, 81002, 81009, 81010, 81011, 81012, 80124, 81244, 80126, 80820, 80130, 80163, 80433, 80129, 80833, 80112, 80832, 81025, 81005, 81223, 81006, 80470, 80127, 80122 and beyond.
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