Getting involved in a car accident can leave one with severe injuries that require urgent medical attention. This may not only lead to high medical costs but also incapacitate the victim, making them unable to work. If you’ve suffered personal injury due to the negligence of a driver, you are eligible for compensation for all pain and suffering that you have been subjected to.
Generally, personal injury claims involve special and general compensation. Special damages are typically regarded as economic and are assigned a specific dollar value. Medical bills, for example, are determined by the value of the services rendered by medical institutions such as hospitals.
What Are Non-Economic Damages?
Non-economic damages are essentially those that don’t have a specific dollar value. These are also referred to as general damages or intangible losses. The most common general economic damages include any pain and suffering that an individual experiences as a result of an accident. These include:
- Physical disfigurement
- Physical impairment
- Mental suffering
- Loss of work due to incapacity
- Future suffering and pain
While these damages result from injury, they may not be quantifiable in monetary terms. Moreover, the mental trauma and anguish that is experienced by an accident victim may prolong for months or years after the accident. That is why non-economic damages are just as important to consider in personal injury claims.
How are Pain and Suffering Calculated in Personal Injury Claims?
Pain and suffering damages are typically very difficult to quantify since they do not have actual dollar values. This is why personal injury legislation in Florida relies on testimonies of the victim and medical records as proof of personal injury. This information is usually used to approximate the extent of pain and suffering caused and subsequently determine the amount of compensation that an accident victim is entitled to.
Insurance companies in Florida typically use very complex formulas to calculate the value of compensation settlements for personal injury claims. Injuries that are perceived as minor are assigned a multiplier of one, whereas those that are considered severe are given a multiplier of 5. This multiplier factor is subsequently applied to the economic damages in order to determine the monetary compensation that is deemed appropriate by the insurance company.
Why Insurance Company Formulas are not Effective for Severe Injury
Although the insurance company formulas are useful for calculating compensation for minor injuries, they are not very useful when it comes to severe injuries. This is because the bills for most serious injuries are usually limited in case treatment is limited or unavailable. Therefore, if you’ve been involved in a serious accident, it is essential to consult with a personal injury lawyer to get help for your compensation claim.
Moreover, ensure you document the pain and suffering that you have gone through after the accident and keep all the medical records of any treatments you have been given. These will serve as evidence of your pain when filing a compensation claim.
Give Us a Call Today
At Payas, Payas & Payas, we have a team of highly professional personal injury lawyers with wide experience in handling compensation claims. Our lawyers will provide you with all the assistance you need to gather evidence for your injury and file a claim for both economic and non-economic damages. If you’ve been injured in an accident due to the negligence of a driver, contact us today for a consultation on how to file for non-economic damage.
