Personal Injury Lawyer
If you are looking into filing a personal injury claim, you may have come across the term “pain and suffering”. If you are wondering what to file a personal injury claim for, you are probably thinking that you will add on pain and suffering because you have experienced some sort of emotional trauma related to the accident you were in or the injuries you are suffering from. However, it is important that you understand more specifically how “pain and suffering” plays a part in your legal claim, what it means, and what kind of compensation you can get for it. Below, you will find out more about the types of pain and suffering and why a lawyer might recommend adding it to your personal injury claim.
What are the different types of pain and suffering?
When you feel that you have endured pain and suffering from your personal injury, it is important to understand what exactly that means. A lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from a law firm like Barry P. Goldberg, knows that you can typically file for pain and suffering under two categories.
- Mental pain and suffering. Although this typically stems from the victim of the accident becoming physically injured, mental pain and suffering can come with things like emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, sleep disturbances, mental anguish, anxiety, panic attacks, shock, and more. If you are dealing with any kinds of negative emotions after the accident, this could be qualified as mental pain and suffering.
- Physical pain and suffering. This may seem more obvious, but physical pain and suffering comes as a direct result of the victim’s physical pain and injuries from the accident. This includes not only the direct physical injuries you sustained from the accident already but also future pain and suffering that you could endure from the accident as well.
Valuing the Pain and Suffering Of Your Case
Once you have established the different types of pain and suffering you may have endured, you are likely also wondering how to value pain and suffering. There are many things that will be taken into account when it comes to valuing pain and suffering, such as your credibility, whether you have seen a doctor and whether their notes support your claims, whether it appears that you have exaggerated anything, whether it appears you are lying about any part of the case, and even whether you have a criminal record. These are all things that an insurance adjuster will be looking at when you bring up mental or physical pain and suffering for your case.
If you are dealing with the ramifications of a personal injury accident and would like to speak with a lawyer about receiving compensation for pain and suffering, reach out to a local law firm for more information.