Pain and suffering is always appropriate in a personal injury claim.  Compensation for pain and suffering is an amount in addition to the medical bills and is based on the medical reports which document your son's injury and medical treatment. There isn't any mathematical formula for determining compensation for pain and suffering.  It depends on the facts of the case, the injury, medical treatment and whether or not there was a full recovery or there are residual complaints which require future treatment.  This is not a comprehensive list, but just examples of factors to consider regarding compensation for pain and suffering.Compensation for the medical bills is straight reimbursement.