When someone gets involved in an accident, they first think about their well being and how this accident will affect their life. They are not immediately thinking about their medical bills. Thus, the value of pain and suffering damages exceeds the value of your economic damages (medical bills and loss of income). Someone might have a low medical bills amount, but missed out on a wedding and the value of that is priceless. The amount a jury finds they would accept to miss out on the wedding is the value of that portion of your total pain and suffering damages.
You are entitled to recover the pain and suffering damages for the past and future. Past pain and suffering is the determined from the time of your accident up to the time of your insurance settlement. If you have a permanent injury which will cause lifetime pain and suffering, then you will have future pain and suffering. The amount of future pain and suffering depends on the severity of your daily suffering and your life expectancy. By using the per diem approach, you determine a reasonable monetary value for you daily suffering and multiply that amount by your life expectancy.
For example, if you have a permanent back injury which requires you to change careers and your lifestyle, you may calculate that daily monetary value of that suffering. To illustrate this example, we will use $50 as your daily pain and suffering amount. You can use a life expectancy table which you can find online to determine your life expectancy. If your life expectancy is 25 years, you multiply the $50 by the 25 years. Twenty five years is equal to 9,125 days (365 X 25). By multiply 9,125 by $50 daily dollars, your future pain and suffering damages may be equal to $456,250.00. The total potential case value would be the $456,250.00 plus your past and future economic damages.
The daily monetary value of your lifetime pain and suffering varies wildly depending on your permanent injury or disfigurement. A person with a permanent amputation would generally have more daily pain and suffering than a person with a permanent shoulder injury. In the example, the daily $50 pain and suffering amount could increase or decrease, depending on your injury. Your lawyer will help you determine which daily monetary value is appropriate if you have a permanent injury with lifetime pain and suffering.
In order to prove you have a permanent injury, you would need to have expert medical professionals testify at trial. They would have to determine that it is more likely than not that you will have a permanent injury based on their physical examinations and review of your medical records.