It’s possible to seek compensation from the at-fault party’s insurance company if you have been injured by someone else’s carelessness. The process to do this involves filing a third-party claim.
When a person is considered at fault, in legal terms this means they are liable for your injuries. During the process of making a claim, you will need to prove that another person is liable for your injuries. You will also need to present evidence of your losses and how they’re connected to your injuries caused by the defendant.
Once proven, the insurance company should compensate you for the medical expenses, loss of wages, and damage to property. In some cases, you may be eligible for compensation for your general pain and suffering.
Pain and Suffering Compensation
Pain and suffering is a legal term used to describe the numerous injuries a person may suffer as a result of an accident. It’s a broad term that covers physical pain, emotional pain and mental injuries. It can include insomnia, fear, grief, worry, loss of enjoyment of life and inconvenience.
Pain and suffering damages can be large or small. There are times where pain and suffering injuries can be difficult to prove and difficult to add a monetary amount to.
Calculation of Pain and Suffering Damages
There is no set formula for determining pain and suffering damages. A skilled personal injury attorney in Milton will know how to do this and it’s strongly suggested that a plaintiff does not try to figure out those amounts themselves.
One method is to multiply the actual damages between a certain amount, depending on the severity of the injury. This is usually on a scale of one to five. Actual damages include medical bills and lost wages.
An attorney may also use a per diem (Latin for “per day”) approach. A certain amount is assigned to every day from the day of the accident until the plaintiff has recovered as fully as they are going to recover.
Insurance companies are not obligated to consider these types of calculations to determine compensation for pain and suffering. Often insurance companies will not. They may use computer programs to determine what amount a settlement off should be made for pain and suffering.
Type of injury and treatment are programed into the computer to help determine compensation. For example, treatment provided by a physician is considered to be a more serious injury than one that is treated by a chiropractor. Treatments considered to be excessive are not included in the calculation of pain and suffering.
What’s Considered a Reasonable Offer?
An insurance company may come back with an offer that may be reasonable, or it may not be. How do you know if it’s reasonable?
The easiest way is to use the above described multiplier method or per diem method. Then consider additional circumstances that might increase or decrease the amount. For example, an accident that caused a scar in an obvious spot, like your face, may be reason for a higher level of pain and suffering compensation.