How an Attorney Can Help You Prove Pain and Suffering

When it comes to personal injury cases, victims are known to have the ability to recover the costs that they incurred after having gone for treatment as a result of the accident. A plaintiff in a personal injury case can seek payment for any economic losses they suffered, such as the inability to earn an income and future financial losses due to the injury.

However, aside from economic losses, courts have been known to award claims and compensation for the pain and suffering an individual incurred due to the accident. This is referred to as pain and suffering compensation. Lawyers can help a plaintiff prove their case for pain and suffering to be awarded damages.

Understanding Pain and Suffering

Before discussing how an attorney can help you prove pain and suffering, it is crucial to understand what constitutes pain and suffering. Pain and suffering refer to the experience an individual has after having suffered an accident. This includes the actual physical pain and any other compounding effects of the accident that has impacted the well-being of an individual.

For example, when one is injured in an accident, the injuries may cause a lot of pain in the body. In addition to the pain, the victim of the accident would also have to suffer some emotional agony while dealing with the trauma resulting from the accident. All these constitute pain and suffering for which courts are inclined to award compensation.

Proving Pain and Suffering

There are different ways lawyers can use to help prove pain and suffering. Proving pain and suffering can be done using various forms of evidence, as illustrated below.

1.     Victim’s Personal Testimony

Stating what you experienced as a victim of an accident can go a long way to proving that you are entitled to compensation for pain and suffering. This statement should include a description of what you experienced during the accident and what life became after the accident.

It is essential to be detailed when giving an account of your experience after sustaining the injuries. Giving details is vital since it allows the jury to understand what you experienced and why you should be paid for the pain and suffering that the defendant caused. In this statement or personal testimony, you should link your physical injuries to the pain and suffering you experienced. This helps to illustrate that the pain and suffering are not merely imaginary but come from the place of the physical injuries that the jury can see.

2.     Expert Witness

When proving pain and suffering, expert witnesses can be essential to help testify the pain and suffering associated with your injuries. Experts could include doctors, physicians, and other participants in the recovery process. Doctors will be able to explain to the jury what ordinarily happens in the case of such injuries as those which you had suffered.

They can also testify to the specifics of the pain you were suffering when you went to see them. It is vital to have the experts explain to the jury the particulars of your case since experts are impartial and have the skill to ascertain whether or not you were actually in pain.

3.     Other Witnesses

Aside from the experts involved in your case, you can also seek other individuals with the knowledge about your case to testify on your behalf. This allows the jury to have a wholesome understanding of your experience after the accident.

For example, friends and relatives who had to take care of you during your recovery process can speak to the pain and suffering you had to endure during your recovery process.

Additionally, they can provide much probative value in emphasizing your testimony and that of the expert witness.

4     Documentary Evidence

Aside from the testimony that different witnesses can give, lawyers can also use documentary evidence to prove pain and suffering. For example, doctors can have your medical bills and records in addition to the pictures and videos of your experience to help illustrate what you experienced after the injuries. Documentary evidence is usually essential since it is known to be accurate and not easily altered unless in fraud cases. Your attorney can help you select which documents can be used as evidence to support your claim.

Quantifying Pain and Suffering

Unlike economic losses, which can be calculated and compounded for the jury to award compensation, it is often quite difficult to quantify pain and suffering. As such, courts have devised different techniques of attempting to calculate or make a guess of how pain and suffering can be quantified. In some instances, courts have awarded a daily figure for the number of days one endured pain and suffering as a vague estimation. Alternatively, courts could multiply the economic damages by a certain figure to determine the quantity of pain and suffering.

Conclusion

As illustrated above, it is imperative to understand how courts have interpreted pain and suffering. Therefore, if you are in an accident or have sustained injuries resulting from an accident, it is important to consult a lawyer who will help you understand how to prove pain and suffering in a more detailed way.