What Does the Legal Term Pain and Suffering Mean?
Serious injuries can impact every part of a person’s life. It deprives them of the ability to earn an income, perform daily living tasks unassisted, enjoy their relationships with their family and friends, and go throughout their day without the pain associated with the injury, the memory of the accident, or the inconvenience of frequent treatments. As noted by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, pain and suffering refer to any type of physical discomfort and emotional distress compensable as non-economic damages. The term also refers to any quality-of-life impacts incurred as a result of the accident. This term includes anguish, inconvenience, emotional trauma, loss of the enjoyment of life—which is the loss of the ability to participate in activities and hobbies the injured party once enjoyed—and loss of consortium, which refers to the loss of the ability to enjoy physical intimacy with one’s spouse. The Center for Justice & Democracy adds that most monetary (economic) damages sought by car accident claimants do not go to the claimant but rather to their creditors. For example, when a person collects compensation for medical expenses, that money goes to healthcare providers and insurers who have provided treatment. Compensation for a damaged vehicle goes to repairing or replacing that vehicle. Wage loss damages replace the loss of income and provide more for higher-earning claimants than those with minimum wage jobs, as they’re calculated based on the claimants’ earnings in the period just before the accident. Non-economic damages are intended for the claimant as payment for all the significant impacts that have affected their quality of life due to the injury.