Wondering how much compensation you can expect to receive for your injury? Here are 3 ways to estimate.
The physical pain and mental anguish you experience following a severe injury is very personal. It is difficult to communicate the extent of your suffering to others, much less put a dollar value on it.
The best way to arrive at a fair figure for your pain and suffering is to consult an experienced personal injury attorney such as Fernando D. Vargas. Attorney Vargas can evaluate your case for free and tell you:
- Whether you have strong legal grounds for seeking compensation for your injury
- Roughly how much you might expect to recover if you were to file a personal injury lawsuit
Again, it is important to bear in mind that every injury is different. Proving pain and suffering will require careful documentation and expert evaluation of your unique case.
However:
If you are looking for a broad idea of how much pain and suffering you might reasonably expect to recover in your case, you may use the following three methods to arrive at a baseline estimate
Multiplier Method
One common way of arriving at a preliminary amount of pain and suffering to seek in a personal injury case is to take your out of pocket expenses stemming from the accident and multiple them anywhere from 1.5 to 4 times. For a minor injury, you would use the low end of the scale. You would use a higher multiplier for a more serious accident involving any of the following aggravating circumstances:
- Lengthy and painful recovery period
- Any permanent injuries or losses
- Drunk driving or other extremely reckless or negligent behavior on the part of a liable party
One problem with using this method to estimate pain and suffering is that the cost of a medical procedure is not always commensurate with the seriousness of the injury. Expensive diagnostic tests may inflate your costs and reduce the multiplier that should be used.
This method is very useful for estimating damages in advance of accepting a settlement offer, but it will not help you if your case goes to court.
Per Diem Method
If you think your case is likely to go to court, you would want to use the per diem method to estimate your pain and suffering. This method is more likely to be accepted in court. Under this method, you assign a specific dollar amount to every day (or week or month) that your injuries caused you pain or suffering. Typically, this dollar amount is based on your income. The assumption here is that dealing with your injury is at least as difficult as going to work. Using this method does not preclude you from also claiming damages for lost income.
Case Comparison Method
One final method for estimating pain and suffering is to review prior cases to see how much victims with similar injuries received. This method is actually best done in cooperation with your personal injury attorney.
Ultimately, if your case does go to court the judge will award whatever damages they deem to be reasonable, fair, and adequate to your suffering. This makes it very important to hire an attorney such as Fernando D. Vargas who can back up his damage estimates by providing strong evidence of pain and suffering in court.
