Pain and suffering are called non-economic damages. If a victim’s discomfort cannot be tied to a monetary figure, how does the insurance company attach a dollar value to the victim’s pain and suffering?
No bill or invoice
A doctor’s bills can be used to prove the medical expenses that arose, following a motor vehicle accident. Hence, medical expenses are called economic damages. The absence of those sorts of bills, in spite of a victim’s discomfort accounts for the fact that pain and suffering is called a non-economic damage.
Factors considered during an assessment of the value associated with a victim’s pain and suffering:
• The financial damages, those that arose from the medical expenses, as well as the loss of income.
• The severity of the injury
• Did the injury cause a permanent disability?
• Did the injury cause a scarring or a disfigurement?
• How long did it take for the victim to recover from the accident-related injury?
What types of discomfort can affect the value of the victim’s pain and suffering?
• Emotional distress
• Mental anguish
• Pain
• Depression
• Loss of enjoyment of life
How can a victim offer evidence of pain?
Personal Injury Lawyer in Kitchener knows that victims that experience a great deal of pain, after involvement in a motor vehicle accident should start a journal or a diary. That would allow them to record the frequency with which the painful sensations were felt. In addition, those same victims could record the intensity of the pain and the amount of time that the painful sensation persisted.
It also helps to explain in a journal or diary what sort of activity triggered the appearance of the pain. By the same token, the recorded information becomes more valuable, if it includes a description for each of the different pains. Were any of them associated with a burning sensation? Were any linked to a sharp pain, or a dull one?
Did the pains develop at several spots on the body? If so, where were those spots? Were they places where the body had been injured?
Did the pains prevent the enjoyment of specific activities? Did any of them make it difficult to perform a typical task, such as eating?
Those are the sorts of questions that should be answered by recording the facts, regarding the coming and going of the painful sensations. The details given in a journal or diary should work to confirm the veracity of the victim’s complaints, regarding any discomforts. Victims that found it difficult to describe a pain’s intensity could create a line of faces, like those used in a hospital. At one end the face would have a smile. At the other end, it would have a distinct grimace. The victim could point to the appropriate face.