Pain and Suffering: Legal Remedies for Victims

Most US courts recognize that reckless and negligent act which injures an individual does not only result to economic losses to a victim. With this argument, most states award pain and suffering damages to victims and surviving relatives who have experienced emotional trauma and anguish.

Pain and Suffering in Personal Injury Lawsuits

The theory behind pain and suffering award is that the victims of another reckless individual will not only experience economic losses—such as hospital expenses, loss of wages, and diminished or complete loss of earning capacity due to disability—but also anguish and emotional pain.

According to personal injury lawyers, pain and suffering damages (also called as non-economic damages) is calculated separately from economic losses.

However, there is no exact formula to calculate the pain and suffering a person has suffered.

Usually, the amount of this non-economic damages will depend on the demand of the victims or complainants who filed the lawsuit. But still, the award will be affected by certain factors such as the jury or insurance adjusters’ decision.

Also, the award for pain and suffering may depend on the jury’s political belief, moral standards, socioeconomic condition, and values. Also, the amount of this legal remedy is capped in most states to prevent people from filing excessive amount of non-economic damages.

Pain and Suffering in Wrongful Death Claims

Surviving relatives of victims who died from the recklessness of another individual can seek pain and suffering damages. The amount of this will be subjected to different factors such as the relationship of the victim to the claimant and the victim’s earning capacity such as if:

• The victim is a young child
  
  If this is the case, the non-economic damages is usually given to parents. However, this is usually small since the victim has no earning capacity.


• The victim is a parent
  
  The award given to surviving children (and spouses) is usually big because the death of their parents means they will be deprived with guidance, companionship, and love and care; aside from losing their economic support.


• The victim is an adult with no spouse of children
  
  In this case, the claimants are the victim’s parents. However, the amount of the award may be small unless the parents can prove they are financially dependent on their children or they receive care from them.

Hiring Lawyers

Because pain and suffering may not be easy to establish unlike economic damages, victims and surviving relatives should hire a personal injury lawyers who know how to estimate the cost of such losses.

With a lawyer, people can also resort to out-of-court settlement and receive pain and suffering damages without having to wait for court decision which may drag for years.