When another person causes you harm, California law recognizes that you have a right to seek compensation. A personal injury lawsuit seeks to provide relief for people who face expensive medical bills and reduced income due to their injuries. While financial losses are easy to document in personal injury cases, victims can also seek compensation for non-monetary losses from their injuries. This type of money is called pain and suffering damages.
Placing a dollar value on intangible losses can be difficult without the help of an experienced legal professional. Turn to a Sacramento personal injury lawyer at Demas Law Group. For over 25 years, our law firm has diligently served people hurt through the negligent or intentional acts of others. We understand that accidents leave survivors with more than physical injuries. We will calculate the full value of your losses and push for the pain and suffering compensation you deserve. Call or contact us today for a free consultation.
Understanding Pain and Suffering Damages
Pain and suffering is a subjective category of damages covering the physical and emotional harm caused by an injury. Unlike tangible damages such as medical bills and lost income, there is no formula for placing a monetary value on pain and suffering, even though these losses significantly impact a victim’s quality of life.
Pain and suffering damages can compensate for both physical pain and emotional distress. Physical pain refers to sensations of discomfort, aching, throbbing, or stiffness resulting from an injury. It can range from mild to severe. Emotional distress covers psychological impacts like depression, anxiety, fear, embarrassment, humiliation, and lost enjoyment of life.
To receive compensation for pain and suffering, you must show the at-fault party’s actions directly caused your suffering. Typically, the more severe and long-lasting the pain, the greater the compensation. Proving pain and suffering often involves subjective evidence, including testimony of how your impairments affect your daily life, personality and mood, and emotional distress.
Everyone experiences pain and suffering differently, so quantifying it can be challenging. Factors to consider include the nature, extent, and duration of the harm. More subjective injuries, like emotional trauma, tend to have lower values than apparent injuries like an amputation. However, the values vary based on the circumstances. For example, an injured child might be more likely to receive more pain and suffering damages than an older individual because the child faces a lifetime of suffering. Pain and suffering awards can range from a few thousand to millions of dollars.
An experienced personal injury attorney can help prove pain and suffering using evidence like medical records, expert testimony, journal entries documenting lifestyle impairments, and testimony from friends and family.
Categories of Pain and Suffering Damages
Pain and suffering is a broad category of damages that covers a wide range of experiences. Common types of pain and suffering damages include:
- Physical pain – Many injuries result in chronic, intense, or debilitating pain. Even when a person has reached maximum medical improvement (MMI), they may have to live with physical pain for the rest of their lives.
- Emotional trauma – Survivors of accidents often suffer from psychological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This condition can cause withdrawal, flashbacks, insomnia, and phobias, among other symptoms.
- Loss of enjoyment of life – When an injury turns a person’s life upside down, their entire outlook may undergo a long-term or even permanent shift. A previously cheerful person might struggle to experience joy, leaving them with emotional scars, physical pain, and an inability to take pleasure in their work, hobbies, or family life.
- Mental anguish – Also known as mental suffering, mental anguish is the state of grief, depression, anxiety, and fear that can follow a traumatic event.
- Physical disfigurement – People whose injuries leave them with scars, limb loss, or other disfigurements often face unfair discrimination, potentially leading to embarrassment and shame. Disfigurement can also cost them opportunities in their professional and personal lives.
- Damage to your reputation – If an injury victim finds the incident harmed their reputation or standing in the community, they may have a right to seek damages for the reputational consequences.
Loss of consortium – Loss of consortium may be awarded to spouses who can no longer enjoy intimacy, affection, assistance, or a sexual relationship with the victim. - Humiliation – If the circumstances surrounding an injury cause a person to experience embarrassment, they may be eligible for compensation.
- Inconvenience – This category of damages compensates an injured person for the interference or undue hardship the injury causes them.
Loss of mental or physical capacity – When an injury has consequences such as cognitive impairment, paralysis, or sexual dysfunction, a court may award damages for loss of mental or physical capacity. - Shortened lifespan – The prognosis of some injuries includes a reduced life expectancy than what the injured person would otherwise have enjoyed. A personal injury claim can demand financial compensation for a victim who suffers such an outcome.
Contact Demas Law Group Today
Life may never look the same after an injury, and dealing with the aftermath can feel lonely. You do not have to face this challenging time alone. The experienced Sacramento personal injury attorneys at Demas Law Group are dedicated to fighting for the rights and dignity of injured Californians.
We understand that no amount of money can make up for the pain and suffering you are experiencing. However, compensation for your losses may give you a sense of justice and reduce your stress by providing financial stability. Contact our office today for a free case review.
