After being injured in an accident in Indiana, many people decide to file personal injury claims to help cover the overwhelming financial cost. Medical bills for even minor to moderate injuries can be formidable, and those for serious injuries can be enough to send you into bankruptcy. Being unable to work may leave you in even more dire straits.
Recovering compensation for the financial cost of your injuries is important. However, when you suffer life-altering injuries because someone else was careless or negligent, you should be compensated for physical and mental pain and suffering. But how is pain and suffering calculated in personal injury claims?
In this article by experienced Indiana personal injury lawyer SLG Accident Attorneys, we take a closer look.
What Is Pain and Suffering in a Personal Injury Claim in Indiana?
“Pain and suffering” is a vague term, and intentionally so. When most people talk about being compensated for pain and suffering, they’re referring to non-economic damages. In personal injury law, “damages” refers to compensation for losses. There are two main types of damages:
- Economic damages compensate you for medical bills, lost income, and other losses you can easily assign a dollar value to
- Non-economic damages compensate you for physical pain, emotional pain, and other losses you can’t easily quantify
“Pain and suffering” includes a wide range of non-economic damages. You could consider these losses to be emotional injuries — you might not be able to quantify them, but these losses can sometimes be just as life-limiting as physical injuries:
Loss of Quality of Life
It’s easy to take physical and mental health for granted. When you suffer serious physical injuries in an accident (and especially if those injuries are permanent), it becomes impossible to enjoy life the way you once did.
Between physical pain, limited mobility, and emotional stress, you might feel as though your world has been turned upside down.
Mental Anguish
In the context of a personal injury lawsuit, “mental anguish” is often used to mean intense distress after an accident, assault, or other traumatic event. The mental aftereffects of an accident can impact almost every facet of your life.
Disfigurement
Some people — even those who suffer major injuries — are fortunate enough to heal with no scarring. On the other end of the spectrum is disfigurement. Major burn injuries or facial injuries that require reconstructive surgery may permanently damage your sense of self and create significant distress.
Physical Pain
Physical pain has a tremendous impact on your mental well-being, so it’s often included under the “pain and suffering” umbrella as well.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Sometimes, the mental and emotional impact of an accident or other event is so severe that you develop post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD comes with a range of emotional and physical symptoms, and it may require intense treatment.
If you do develop PTSD, the cost of mental health treatment could be included in the economic damages your lawyer tries to recover for you. However, any payment you receive for pain and suffering can compensate you for the emotional effects of this disorder.
To learn more about what pain and suffering is, reach out to our legal team at SLG Accident Attorneys today. We offer free consultations and can help you understand your legal options after an accident or injury in Indiana.
What Are Some of the Factors That Affect Pain and Suffering Damages?
If you’re wondering, “How is pain and suffering calculated in personal injury claims?” you should know that before an insurance adjuster, lawyer, or judge attempts to value your physical and emotional pain, they will typically take a step back and consider several factors that influence the overall value of your settlement.
Whether Your Injuries Will Cause Long-Term or Permanent Disability
Some people can suffer major injuries in an accident and still see those injuries heal completely in a year or two. Others are left with long-term or even permanent disabilities. For instance, if your face was permanently disfigured in an accident, you’d likely receive more compensation than you would if you were expected to make a full recovery.
The Severity of Your Injuries
As a general rule, more serious injuries justify higher settlements. If your injuries are exceedingly minor (like if you slipped and fell in a store and just got a mild ankle sprain), you might not be able to find a personal injury lawyer to take your case.
How Painful Your Injuries Are
Physical pain often plays a major role when it comes to determining how much compensation for pain and suffering you should receive. This is particularly true if you have an injury that is expected to largely heal but still leave you in near-constant pain.
For example, if you were in an accident and suffered a cracked vertebra that healed with no lasting issues, you probably would receive less compensation than someone whose spinal cord injury has left them with permanent nerve pain.
The Mental Impact of the Accident
Some people tend to be more mentally affected by traumatic events than others. Still, anyone evaluating your case will likely be inclined to award you more payment for pain and suffering if your accident involved intense mental distress.
For example, imagine two people are in equally serious accidents and suffer equally severe injuries. However, one person’s child was killed in the accident. Because of the added tragedy of losing a child, the latter person would likely receive greater pain and suffering compensation.
Your Credibility
In a perfect world, the courts and insurance adjusters could take a truly objective look at your situation and decide on your pain and suffering compensation from there. However, if you want to maximize your compensation, you need to do what you can to be believable. Don’t embellish or exaggerate — just talk about your injuries as they are.
Testifying about your injuries is likely a new experience for you. However, it’s not a new experience for your attorney. If your case does go to court, your lawyer can offer tips for testifying and let you practice beforehand.
There are a few other things you can do beforehand to ensure you appear credible in court. Almost any personal injury lawyer will advise you not to post about the accident or your injuries on social media.
The other side’s attorneys will likely comb through your social media to look for anything that even suggests your injuries aren’t as bad as you say. Even something as benign as “I feel a little better today” can be used against you in court. It’s best to play it safe and keep your case off social media.
What Are the Methods Used to Calculate Pain and Suffering in an Indiana Personal Injury Claim?
Understanding the various factors that go into determining your compensation for pain and suffering can be helpful. But how is pain and suffering calculated in personal injury claims?
Fortunately, lawyers and insurance companies have fairly objective ways to calculate settlements. These are the two most common:
The Multiplier Method
Of the two methods of calculating pain and suffering compensation, the multiplier method is probably the most popular way. Here’s how to do it:
- Add up your economic damages
- Choose a multiplier between 1.5 and five — 1.5 for the least serious injuries and five for the most serious injuries
- Multiply your economic damages by the multiplier you chose
Here’s an example calculation (with simplified monetary values for the sake of convenience). Imagine you were rear-ended by a drunk driver and suffered a few spinal fractures. Your total economic damages are $10,000.
The spinal fractures are painful, but they will likely heal with no further issues. In this case, 2.5 may be an appropriate modifier, so you then multiply $10,000 by 2.5 and get $25,000.
Remember that the $25,000 is the total for your non-economic damages — not your total compensation. To see how much compensation you could get, you must add $10,000 and $25,000. That gives you $35,000 in total compensation.
The Per Diem Method
This is another method worth considering. With the per diem method, you start out by choosing a daily rate of compensation for pain and suffering. That daily rate may be set with the help of medical experts, and it typically involves taking the following factors into account:
- The length of recovery time
- The overall severity of your injuries
- The value of jury verdicts for cases similar to yours
- How much your injuries interfere with daily life
When deciding on a daily rate, it’s essential to make sure the rate you choose is a reasonable one. Attorneys often choose something close to what your daily wage would be, or about $200-$300.
What Method Do the Courts Use?
It’s important to note that while courts may use either of these methods, they aren’t obligated to use one or the other. Attorneys and insurance companies often use either the multiplier or per diem method when working out a settlement, but if the case goes to court, the court may calculate the damages you’re owed in any way it wishes.
How Do You Prove Pain and Suffering?
It’s easy enough to prove the value of your economic losses when you’re dealing with the court or with an insurance adjuster. Proving pain and suffering is a little trickier. Your attorney will be able to choose the best evidence for your specific case, but these are some of the most common types of evidence:
Testimony From Your Treatment Team
Expert testimony can be immensely helpful in any personal injury case. When the physicians treating you are willing to go on record and talk about the pain and suffering you’re facing, courts and insurance companies are more likely to take your account seriously.
Testimony From Your Mental Health Professional
In some cases, it can be difficult to convince an insurance company or court to take your word for it when you tell them how your injuries have affected your state of mind. If you can, visit a therapist — even if it’s just for a few sessions — after your accident.
With your permission, the therapist can testify as to how your injuries have impacted your mental well-being.
Your Own Testimony
Your own explanation of how your injuries impact your life can also be helpful. It’s a good idea to keep a daily journal of your pain levels and physical limitations. Writing something down each day instead of all at once will make you more credible. When it comes to something as subjective as calculating pain and suffering, your credibility may prove to be a very important factor.
Your Medical Records
Medical bills can help with calculating economic damages, but your medical records themselves can be useful when it comes to illustrating pain and suffering. These records will include your doctors’ assessments of your situation as well as your own complaints of pain and/or lack of mobility.
Testimony From Other People in Your Life
Friends, family, and coworkers may also be able to explain how they’ve seen your injuries affect you. Sometimes, the people around you will notice changes in your behavior or demeanor that you yourself don’t even notice, so their observations may be able to offer a more complete picture of the accident’s effect on you.
Indiana’s Comparative Fault Laws
Indiana is a “modified comparative fault” state, so you can sue for damages if you were partially at fault for your accident. Under Indiana Code § 34-51-2-6, you may attempt to recover damages as long as you were less at fault for your accident than the other party. However, if you were partially at fault, the amount you recover is reduced by your percentage of fault.
Here’s an example. Imagine you’re driving, and you start to drift slightly into the adjacent lane. A driver behind you is speeding. They catch up to you, sideswiping your car. The court determines you are 20% at fault. You sue the other driver for damages and are awarded $100,000. However, that amount is reduced by 20%, so you ultimately receive $80,000.
Are There Damage Caps for Pain and Suffering in Indiana?
If you’ve seen the multimillion-dollar personal injury verdicts that often make the news, it’s easy to understand why some states put caps on how much compensation you can recover for pain and suffering. Indiana doesn’t cap compensation for pain and suffering, but it does have limitations on some kinds of personal injury cases.
These limitations are outlined in Indiana Code § 34-18-14-3. If you file a claim against the state, you can’t recover more than $700,000, and in medical malpractice claims, you can’t recover more than $1.8 million.
However, there are some cases where you may be able to recover more compensation for pain and suffering than you ordinarily would.
In some instances where the multiplier method is being used to determine pain and suffering compensation, a court may actually use a multiplier higher than five. This isn’t terribly common, but it’s sometimes used in cases where your injuries are so serious that they result in total, permanent disability.
Knowledgeable Indiana Personal Injury Lawyers
When you’ve been hurt because another person was negligent or intentionally caused harm, you don’t need just any personal injury attorney — you need a committed advocate who is ready to put their legal knowledge to work for you.
At SLG Accident Attorneys, we’re proud to stand up for injured Indiana residents, and we’re ready to fight for you. Get in touch with us to schedule your free consultation today.
Some of the locations our legal team serves include Indianapolis, Fishers, Anderson, Carmel, Noblesville, Greenwood, and more.
