After a car accident or other personal injury situation in Texas, you may face costly medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. While medical bills and lost wages are economic damages that are fairly easy to calculate, it can be difficult to put a value on non-economic damage such as pain and suffering. Below, we discuss how pain and suffering is calculated in personal injury cases.
If you’ve been injured in an accident that was not your fault, reach out to the experienced Texas personal injury lawyers at The Law Giant, Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers. Contact The Law Giant at (866) 523-4167 today to determine the value of your case and learn about your legal options.
What is Pain and Suffering?
Pain and suffering is the physical and emotional distress you might endure after getting into an accident. For example, if you broke your leg, you may feel actual physical pain from your fracture. You may also face emotional distress as you are no longer able to clean your house, go to work, or drive your kids around.
Determining a value for pain and suffering can be difficult, because you can’t show a receipt like you’d be able to with your medical bills. Since pain and suffering damages are subjective, it can be a real challenge to assign a dollar amount to them.
Understanding the Multiplier Method
In Texas, the basic multiplier method is used to determine the value of pain and suffering in personal injury cases. An insurance company will add up all of your economic damages like medical bills and lost wages, and multiply the sum by on a scale between 1.5 and five. One the lower end of the scale are minor injuries that don’t require extensive medical treatment, while five is for life-threatening harm that can take a serious toll on your life and future.
As an example, say you broke your leg and need to take time off from work to heal. In this case, the insurer may assign you a 1.5. On the other hand, if you broke both legs and needed to stay in a rehab facility for months of physical and occupational therapy, you’d likely be assigned a four or a five for the multiplier method.
If you were involved in a car accident, slip and fall, premises liability, or defective product claim, there are no limits on the amount of pain and suffering damages you can recover. Texas courts impose a cap of $250,000 on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases, however, regardless of your circumstances. Even if the multiplier method states that your pain and suffering damages are worth more, $250,000 is the most you’ll be able to collect if a health care provider caused you harm.
How is Pain and Suffering Evaluated?
There are a number of factors that will be looked at when evaluating the extent of your pain and suffering. When trying to determine a value on this type of personal injury damage, you can expect a judge or jury to look at how much pain occurred at the time of the accident, and how much suffering you’ll continue to experience as a result of the injuries. Factors that may be considered during your case include:
- Pain from medical treatment
- Emotional/mental trauma
- Chronic pain
- The effect of the injury on your quality of life
- Whether pain prevents you from performing certain tasks
- Discomfort you may face in certain situations
Contact The Law Giant Today
Calculating pain and suffering after a Texas personal injury case is a complex task. Allow The Law Giant, Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers to take care of this while you focus on recovering. We will fight for you to be compensated fairly for this damage, as well as other types of harm you have suffered as the result of a personal injury accident. Contact us today at (866) 523-4167 to schedule a free, initial consultation of your case.
