When someone is the victim of an accident caused by another person, they can claim damages for the pain and suffering their injuries have caused. However, pain and suffering damages are non-economic and thus can be difficult to prove.
Pain and suffering damages are intended to compensate you for the physical pain and emotional stress your injuries have caused. Thus, these damages are based on your subjective experiences and how your life has been impacted. Several factors can be used to evaluate your pain and suffering but can usually be calculated using a per diem or multiplier method. It is important to accurately assess these damages as your pain and suffering can last long after the underlying injuries have healed.
If you suffered physical pain and emotional anguish from an accident, our Alabama personal injury attorneys can help you recover compensation for your pain and suffering. Call the attorneys at Howe Law today at (844) 876-4357 for a free case assessment.
How Can I Recover Damages for Pain and Suffering in Alabama?
If you have suffered a personal injury in Alabama, you will have a few options to recover compensation for the damages you suffered in your accident. Part of the damages you can claim is for the pain and suffering your injuries have caused. Unlike your medical expenses and lost wages, pain and suffering damages are non-economic in nature, which tends to make them more challenging to prove in an insurance claim or lawsuit. Fortunately, our personal injury lawyers in Alabama can help you gather evidence to prove the pain and suffering your injuries have caused.
Recovering Pain and Suffering Damages from Insurance
The first route you can take to recover pain and suffering damages is filing a third-party claim against the other driver’s car insurance. Alabama is a “fault” state for the purposes of car insurance. This means that the at-fault party’s insurance should cover your damages like medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and any other damages you can prove were caused by your injuries. This is much preferable to being in a state that uses “no-fault” insurance, which typically prevents victims from recovering pain and suffering damages unless they suffer serious injuries.
Insurance claims work like lawsuits in that you will need to provide evidence that the other person caused your personal injury. While an insurance claim can be filed without legal representation, having an attorney manage your claim can help maximize the amount of compensation you could recover. Proving pain and suffering can be difficult if your damages are more emotional in nature, and insurance companies will look for any reason to lower your settlement offer.
Settlement negotiations can be tense, and insurance companies often make low offers knowing that most victims desperately need to cover their expenses quickly. Without an attorney, the insurance company will likely have the upper hand during negotiations. Our Birmingham personal injury lawyers can help ensure that you are not pressured into settling your case for an amount less than it is worth. Our firm is experienced with settlement negotiations and how to achieve higher settlement offers for our clients. If negotiations do not prove fruitful, our attorneys can file a lawsuit to recover the compensation you deserve.
Filing a Lawsuit
While many personal injury cases settle, sometimes taking a case through trial is necessary. In some cases, it is better to have your case heard in front of a jury. Juries are made of everyday people who might be willing to award a higher amount that an insurance company would offer since most jurors can empathize with an injured plaintiff.
One important question personal injury victims might have is if their pain and suffering damages will be capped if their lawsuit succeeds. While many states do limit the amount of pain and suffering damages victims can be awarded, Alabama is not one of them. You are free to claim as much pain and suffering damages as your case justifies. Our lawyers can gather evidence of your pain and suffering so that an accurate value for your damages can be determined.
How are Damages for Pain and Suffering Calculated in Alabama?
Calculating pain and suffering damages can be challenging because it is often a subjective process. These claims can be based on emotional damages, which might not have much physical evidence to prove them other than your testimony. To help solve this issue, a few methods have been developed to help attorneys and courts calculate a fair value for a victim’s pain and suffering.
One way is the multiplier method. According to this method, your economic damages, like medical bills and lost wages, are added up, and that number is then multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5. The multiplier used in your case will depend on the severity of your injuries. Severe injuries will be multiplied by 4 or 5, while minor injuries will usually be multiplied by 1.5.
The other method is the per diem, or per day, method. Under this method, your pain and suffering will be given a daily monetary value and multiplied by the number of days it is determined you experienced pain and suffering. This method is commonly used in cases where the victim will fully recover in a relatively short period. This method is less useful with applied to cases involving serious injuries.
For more unique cases, our personal injury lawyers might look at previous cases similar to yours to see what results were awarded in those cases. If your case involves significant injuries with lasting emotional damage, researching previous cases can help our attorneys determine a value likely to be rewarded in court if pursued. Regardless of the facts of your case, our attorneys can help you accurately calculate your pain and suffering damages so that you do not miss out on the vital compensation you need.
Our Alabama Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help
If another person’s negligence caused you pain and suffering, our pedestrian accident attorneys can help you recover damages for the anguish you have endured. For a free case review, call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357.
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