“Pain and suffering” is a catch-all name for the “non-economic damages” you can claim in an injury lawsuit. When you sue for an accident, you can get paid for any expenses related to the accident (medical bills, vehicle repairs), plus lost earnings (lost income), but any other intangible effects are grouped under these non-economic damages.
Pain and suffering has two shortcut calculation methods: the multiplier method and the per diem method. Both have their uses, but neither is definitive, as the final amount is up to the jury. When claiming pain and suffering, it is important to account for all of your emotional distress, mental anguish, and physical pain, then we claim a value that accurately reflects that.
For a free case evaluation, call Cap City Injury Attorneys’ Austin personal injury lawyers at (512) 612-3110 today.
What is Covered Under Pain and Suffering in Texas?
When San Marcos, TX personal injury lawyers discuss “pain and suffering,” we are talking broadly about all of the intangible physical, mental, and emotional harms you suffer from an accident. These can have many different names, but no matter the name, it should account for all of these “non-economic damages”:
- Physical pain
- Mental suffering
- Discomfort
- Emotional distress
- Mental anguish
- Feelings of loss (especially for amputations or lost ability)
- Embarrassment from an injury or disability
- The pain of medical treatment
- Loss of consortium – damages paid to a spouse for their spouse’s incapacity and lost intimacy
- Disfigurement and scarring.
Disfigurement and scarring damages are especially high for young people, especially young women and unmarried injury victims who now might face more difficult romantic prospects from the injury.
Proving Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering are considered “general” damages that flow generally from any injury case. As such, you do not necessarily need to prove that you felt pain. Instead, we focus on proving how severe it was. This is often aided by the following evidence:
- Your testimony about pain, discomfort, emotions, feelings, etc., that the injury caused you
- Testimony from loved ones about the effect the injury had on your life
- Testimony from doctors, therapists, and other experts
- Evidence of the injury’s effect on your activities of daily living
- Evidence of lost ability to participate in activities or hobbies you enjoyed.
Multiplier Method
One method commonly used to calculate pain and suffering damages is the “multiplier method.” Here, we take the total economic damages in your case and multiply them by a multiplier.
Setting the Multiplier
That multiplier is usually a number from 1.5 to 5, chosen to reflect the seriousness of your injury. For example:
- 5 would reflect a mild or moderate injury
- 2-3 could reflect a moderate to serious injury
- 4 would reflect a more serious injury
- 5-6 reflects the most serious, life-altering injuries.
The more severe the injury and the more serious the effects on your life, the higher the multiplier.
Example
For example, let’s imagine a 22-year-old who just graduated from college on a full-ride track scholarship and is now working in her first week as a nurse. If she shatters her leg in a car crash, leading to surgeries, 6 months of healing, and permanent pain and partial loss of use in her leg, her case is quite serious. Not only might her career have to change – as nurses have to be on their feet all the time – but she also can’t run recreationally anymore and may walk with a painful limp for 2 years.
This could be graded as around a 3.5. With $100,000 of economic damages, a 3.5 would set her total damages at $350,000, so pain and suffering would be $250,000.
Per Diem Method
Alternatively, you can think of being an injury victim as a full-time job. Assessing pain and suffering would then mean assessing how much a victim should be paid, per day, to face their injury.
Setting the Per Diem Rate
This starts by assessing their total wages from before the injury and calculating their per-day pay. Then, we multiply that by the number of days they experience pain and suffering, potentially going into the future. This assumes that the job of being an injury victim is at least as difficult as their actual work was.
Example
Using the same example above, let’s presume the nurse’s salary was around $70,000 per year (close to the average for new nurses in Texas). Per workday, that would be around $280 per day (ignoring holidays and vacations).
That means that if she has an estimated 2 years of pain in her leg (730 days), her total pain and suffering would be $204,400.
Jury’s Role
No matter which calculation method you use, this is only an estimate of damages. Ultimately, the jury decides how much your pain and suffering is worth, and they may adjust these results up or down or use completely different logic to arrive at your total pain and suffering damages.
Drawbacks to Calculation Methods
Neither method is perfect, and both are commonly criticized for these and other reasons:
- The per diem method doesn’t work well for changes in the amount of suffering you face, which might be high during recovery but at a low level for the rest of your life
- The per diem method would pay higher pain and suffering to higher earners for equivalent injuries
- Multipliers are a crude estimate of the effects on a person’s entire life
- Age and quality of life before the injury are not easily taken into account
- Multipliers make more expensive injuries have higher pain and suffering damages, even if the actual suffering isn’t higher.
Other Factors to Consider
Pain and suffering can often be higher for people who…
- Are younger
- Are more active
- Have more serious lost abilities
- Face more significant scarring, amputation, or physical changes
- Have ongoing/long-term injuries
- Have more severe injuries
- Undergo more medical care and surgeries.
FAQs for Calculating Pain and Suffering in Texas
What is My Pain and Suffering Worth?
We cannot assess your case without looking into the specifics of how your injuries affected your life.
How Reliable Are “Pain and Suffering Calculators”?
Pain and suffering calculators are not very reliable, as there are a lot of personalized factors that cannot be assessed. Talk to a lawyer about the specifics of your case instead of relying on online calculators.
Are Emotional Damages Part of Pain and Suffering?
“Pain and suffering” usually includes emotional damages plus any other non-monetary effects of an injury.
How is Pain and Suffering Different from Mental Anguish or Emotional Distress?
The term “pain” usually refers to the physical sensation, while “suffering” covers the mental side. Both “mental anguish” and “emotional distress” are included under the umbrella of “pain and suffering,” but using different names might highlight different harms you personally face.
Can You Get Pain and Suffering Without a Physical Injury?
Pain and suffering or emotional distress damages are usually paid in association with a physical injury. If your injury was purely mental or emotional, you might still be able to sue, but proving your case will be harder. This is rare, as most cases do involve at least a small or minor physical injury, even if the mental injury is the main focus of the case.
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Call (512) 612-3110 for a free case evaluation with the Round Rock, TX personal injury lawyers at Cap City Injury Attorneys.