Key Factors Influencing Pain and Suffering Compensation in Michigan Claims

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Being injured in an accident that you played no part in is a tragedy. As unfair as it is, you’re stuck coping with injuries, medical bills, and a rollercoaster of emotions. Sometimes medical treatment could keep you out of work for months, years, or even a lifetime. Your entire world can quickly become an unfathomable mess of financial losses, medical issues, and emotional issues. Medical expenses can be easily calculated, but what about your mental state?

Suppose you’ve become the victim of an accident that completely disrupted your life physically and emotionally. In that case, you’ll want to find a personal injury lawyer in Southfield, MI, who can help you receive the fairest compensation to cover all your damages.

What Are Non-Economic Damages?

Victims of accidents, whether they met their fate in a car collision, a slip and fall incident, or as the result of a faulty product, are entitled to seek compensation for their damages. Most of us think of damages in terms of lost money. However, that’s not always the case.

For personal injury cases, this is typical compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and any out-of-pocket expenses suffered due to the accident that caused bodily harm. However, there are other things you can claim as damages that are more difficult to give a monetary amount: non-economic damages.

For some, severe physical injuries can cause emotional scars that aren’t visible to the eyes. Michigan allows for the following non-economic damages:

• Pain and suffering, both physical and emotional
• Mental anguish
• Reduction of enjoyment of life
• Scarring or disfigurement

What Is Pain and Suffering?

Pain and suffering can have different meanings depending on who you ask. Regarding personal injury lawsuits, pain and suffering cover the physical discomfort of injuries and the emotional distress they cause. This non-economic damage is related to both the body and the mind. Common examples of pain and suffering can include:

• Chronic pain
• Depression
• Nightmares
• Insomnia
• PTSD
• Anxiety
• Loss of consortium

Michigan law limits who can claim pain and suffering in a personal injury lawsuit. To claim pain and suffering as damage for a Michigan personal injury case, the victim must have what’s referred to as a “threshold injury.” It has three categories:

1. Death
2. Permanent serious disfigurement
3. Serious impairment of a bodily function

The threshold injury rule was put in place to end frivolous lawsuits and discourage plaintiffs from claiming non-economic damages for minor injuries. However, since the definition of pain and suffering is somewhat open to interpretation, this is best discussed with your personal injury lawyer.

How To Prove Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering, either physical or emotional, can be difficult to prove but not impossible. Since Michigan requires a threshold injury for plaintiffs to claim, simply having a permanent disfigurement or impairment of a bodily function is much easier to prove. The loss of an extremity or a severe disfigurement is easily proven, and most will have some compassion thinking of the horror such an injury could cause. However, pain and suffering will still need to be proven. Typical ways of doing so include:

• Before and after photos
• Medical doctor and mental health professional’s evaluation
• List of missed events due to emotional issues
• Personal pain and emotions journal
• Testimony from friends and family

How Are Pain and Suffering Calculated in Michigan?

Numerous factors must be considered when calculating a monetary amount for a claim of pain and suffering. The amounts could vary greatly if the case goes to a jury trial. What one juror may feel is appropriate, another may feel is far too low or too high. This highlights the need to work with a highly experienced personal injury attorney with courtroom experience.

However, the biggest factors to consider for a pain and suffering settlement include:

• The severity or permanence of the injury
• The type and length of treatment
• The age of the victim

Key Factors Influencing Pain and Suffering Compensation: The Bottom Line

Those severely injured in an accident that wasn’t their fault have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit to seek economic and non-economic damages. The economic ones are fairly easy to calculate. However, non-economic damages like pain and suffering can be difficult to pinpoint. Michigan law requires that plaintiffs seeking non-economic damages meet one of the categories of the “threshold injury,” so not every accident victim can claim pain and suffering.

To receive compensation for all of your damages, hiring a personal injury lawyer will ensure all your needs are met.