When you’re in a car accident, your life can change in an instant. You’re facing growing medical bills, you can’t work, and you’re dealing with invisible injuries called pain and suffering. These invisible losses are an important part of valuing your case.
While we can’t estimate the amount your pain and suffering may be worth without a free case review, we can help you determine which losses may contribute to your settlement amount.
Keep reading to learn how pain and suffering is valued after a Chattanooga car accident and why having help from a car accident lawyer team, like McMahan Law Firm, can help maximize your compensation.
Types of Compensable Losses and Damages
“Damages” is a legal term that refers to the dollar value placed on the losses you have suffered from your injury. There are two types of damages we help our clients seek in car accident cases: special damages and general damages. Special damages are those that are easy to financially value, such as medical bills, lost wages, and other losses that have a dollar amount already assigned to them.
General damages are the damages that aren’t as easily valued. These damages are commonly referred to as “pain and suffering.” This includes invisible or emotional losses, such as signs of emotional trauma, reduced quality of life, depression and mood swings, loss of companionship, loss of relationships and comfort, loss of consortium, and other issues related to your suffering.
How Is Pain and Suffering Valued in Tennessee?
There is no specific formula that can determine the value of your potential pain and suffering settlement. The only way to accurately estimate your settlement is to contact a Chattanooga car accident lawyer for a case review.
Usually, though not always, pain and suffering is determined using a multiplier of your special damages. This means, your lawyer may take the total amount of financial special damages and then multiply it by a number that reflects the amount of pain and suffering you have experienced. This means, for example, if your special damages are worth $50,000, and your car accident lawyer uses a multiplier of two because you didn’t suffer any extreme or long-term suffering, they will ask for $100,000 for your case.
Again, this is merely a rough estimate. Attorneys and insurance companies almost never reveal the exact formula they use to value pain and suffering in a case. To more accurately estimate how much your case is worth, contact an experienced car accident attorney.
How to Prepare Pain and Suffering Evidence
The first step in preparing your pain and suffering case after a car accident is to gather all the evidence you have to support your case. If you filed a police report, have a copy handy. While it can’t usually be used as evidence, it can help you to remember the details of the accident. Once you contact your car accident lawyer, they will be able to collect all of the documentation needed as evidence to build your strongest possible case.
Other documents include, but may not be limited to:
- Records of any mental health therapy or treatment appointments
- Medical bills
- Medication records
- Letters from your doctor
- Other records of your injuries
Our biggest recommendation to document your experience after an accident is to keep a detailed journal of what you’re going through. This can serve to back up your story. It can demonstrate how difficult it has been to focus, keep your relationships stable, and live with pain that can’t be seen. In the end, the more records you have, the stronger your claim will be.
Seek Help From a Qualified Car Accident Attorney
If you’ve been hurt in an accident due to someone else’s reckless acts, The McMahan Law Firm can fight for you. Attorneys Jay & Brent are the board-certified trial attorneys you need on your case to help prove your pain and suffering deserves compensation. We will treat you like a member of our own family and protect your rights every step of the way. Call us at 423-265-1100 or get in touch online to receive your free case review today.
