When you make an insurance claim against the person who negligently caused your injuries, their insurance company will request proof from you that you had pain and suffering. The first way to prove you had pain and suffering is to show the insurance adjuster your medical records for medical treatment you received because of the accident. The medical records will detail the subjective complaints you told your doctor on each of your medical appointments. It will detail your pain levels that you complained of, the effect your injuries had on your activities of daily living and your clinical examination findings.
Activities of daily living are defined as routine activities that people do every day. They include, but are not limited to, sleeping, walking, getting dressed, taking a bath, eating, working and driving. If you can show that your injury has affected your ability to perform any activities of daily living, then you can prove that you had pain and suffering because of the accident. Your injury may affect your activities of daily living in two ways. First, you may still perform certain activities of daily living, but not as well as before the accident. For example, you may still able to get dressed, but it may be more difficult because of the pain and discomfort you have.
The second way an injury can affect an activities of daily living is that you can’t perform certain activities at all. For example, you may not be able to exercise anymore because of your injury. Pain and suffering awards are higher for persons that can no longer perform activities of daily living compared to still being to perform activities of daily living, but with difficulty.
Aside from medical records, you can also prove that you had suffered pain and suffering because you missed certain social events or have not been able to experience the same quality of life did you had prior to the accident. For example, you may have missed important social events such as a wedding or graduation because of your injuries. Missing out on social events causes social distress and thus adds to your pain and suffering money damages.
It is difficult to remember dates of social events that you missed out on. Thus, I recommend you keep a journal and make an entry whenever you had an experience which caused you pain and suffering because of your injuries. You should date each journal entry so that you can be specific about when the loss of enjoyment of life occurred when negotiating your pain and suffering damages with the insurance adjuster.
Another way to prove you have pain and suffering due to an accident is by sharing MRI or X-ray results with the insurance adjuster. These are known as objective findings of injury. The MRI or X-ray may show a fracture, disc bulge and many other types of damages. This is the strongest evidence for pain and suffering because it can’t be contested by the insurance adjuster. The insurance adjuster may question your subjective complaints about your pain levels, but they can’t dispute any findings of injury on an MRI, CT Scan, X-ray or any other objective diagnostic test.
If your claim goes to trial, you can present witnesses to testify as to how your injuries affected your life. You may call family members, friends, coworkers, or other associates you have to talk about how you struggled, had pain and are not the same person as you were before the accident.