Posted on Saturday, February 1st, 2025 at 9:00 am
Car accidents can change a person’s life. There are physical injuries to consider, but many people suffer from mental health concerns and long-term quality-of-life adjustments. Fair compensation should cover medical expenses and lost wages, which are easy to calculate. However, how do you seek fair compensation for the things you can’t measure, like a person’s pain and suffering?
Calculating pain and suffering in Lakewood, Washington, is not easy. The court isn’t required to use a set formula to assess the value of a person’s unique pain and consequences following a traumatic car accident. However, when you’re negotiating a settlement outside of court, you and your lawyer will need to make that assessment yourselves. Different methods for calculating pain and suffering can help you get closer to recovering fair compensation for your injuries and losses.
Compensation Available in Lakewood, Washington Accidents
Generally, an accident victim can pursue two types of compensation through a civil lawsuit: economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are reasonably easy to calculate. They account for a person’s measurable losses, such as medical expenses, property damage, and lost wages.
Non-economic damages are more subjective and challenging to estimate. They cover changes in an accident victim’s quality of life. Examples of non-economic damages are emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and pain and suffering. There are no hospital bills or car repair receipts to help establish the value of non-economic damages. Of course, this makes them harder to calculate.
What Is Pain and Suffering?
Pain and suffering refers to an injured victim’s physical and mental pain and struggles following an accident. Pain and suffering are subjective and can refer to physical pain, chronic pain, emotional distress, and loss of basic quality of life. Significant injuries can have long-term physical and mental repercussions such as anxiety, depression, scarring, disfigurement, and the inability to interact or participate in activities the person once enjoyed.
These are the intangible effects of a car accident. While they may not be easy to measure, they do cause significant challenges to accident victims and should be considered when evaluating the overall value of a personal injury case.
How to Calculate Pain and Suffering in Lakewood, Washington
Unfortunately, there is no universal formula to calculate the exact value of a person’s pain and suffering in Washington. Again, non-economic losses like pain and suffering are subjective, and calculations depend on numerous factors unique to each person’s case. The severity of a person’s injuries, the length of recovery, how injuries impact the person’s daily life, and long-term physical and mental complications can influence the value of a case.
There are no hard and fast rules governing pain and suffering calculations. However, lawyers and insurance adjusters use a couple of generally accepted methods to estimate the value of pain and suffering in Lakewood, Washington.
The first method is called the multiplier method. This method calculates pain and suffering by taking the total of the accident victim’s economic, measurable losses and multiplying them by a number between 1.5 and five to estimate pain and suffering. The multiplier number depends on the severity of a person’s injury and level of emotional distress. Significant injuries that cause life-altering physical or mental injuries, like traumatic brain injury, burns, or spinal cord injuries, typically get multiplied by a higher number.
The other method for estimating pain and suffering is the per diem method. The per diem model assigns a daily dollar amount to the accident victim’s pain and suffering. That daily rate gets multiplied by the number of days the victim experiences pain and suffering. They count the days from the accident date to the full recovery date. The daily rate is generally based on the victim’s daily earnings or another reasonable amount.
The per diem method is used more in cases where the accident victim expects to make a full or nearly complete recovery without significant long-term quality-of-life alterations.
A Lakewood Personal Injury Attorney Can Help You Calculate Your Losses
Pursuing the compensation you need following an accident can be challenging. Before you accept anything less than what you deserve, discuss your situation with a skilled Lakewood car accident attorney at The Law Offices of Briggs & Briggs. Our legal team will thoroughly review your case and accurately estimate the value of your injuries to pursue maximum compensation on your behalf.
Call our office today at (253) 588-6696 or contact us online. You can set up a confidential case review to learn more about how our team can help you navigate this uncertain time. We focus on your case so you can focus on your recovery.
