When you suffer an injury due to a third party’s negligent or intentional conduct, you may have a claim for damages. We must first check off a few boxes to determine whether you have a viable claim. First, can we prove liability against the defendant? This requires convincing a jury that the defendant acted negligently by a preponderance of the evidence. Second, is there a source of recovery? In auto accidents, this is typically the owner of the vehicle’s auto insurance policy. Although, if we are suing a grocery store or restaurant, it may be their liability insurance. We must check several other boxes to pursue a viable claim, but there are too many to mention here. Does your claim survive any relevant defenses available to the defendant? Assuming we can do all of the above, we may move on to proving damages.
Similar to proving liability, we require evidence to make our case that you suffered damages. There are two types of damages: special and general damages. Special damages are also known as economic damages and cover medical expenses, lost wages, and any other economic loss you suffer because of an injury. Meanwhile, general damages cover noneconomic damages. In layperson’s terms, these are known as pain and suffering damages. Noneconomic damages technically cover more than just pain and suffering damages. They also cover loss of enjoyment of life, mental anguish and trauma, decrease in quality of life, scarring and disfigurement, disabilities, permanent impairments, and more. However, it is tricky to distinguish each of these intangible injuries, and they tend to be grouped all in with pain and suffering damages.
Types of Pain and Suffering: Physical vs. Emotional
As we briefly discussed above, there are theoretically endless ways to describe pain and suffering damages. For simplicity’s sake, we categorize all general damages into two categories.
Physical
Physical pain and suffering refers to the actual physical injuries you have sustained due to an accident. In a car or truck accident, you presumably suffer some injury. If you do not suffer an injury, then it is not worth your time to pursue a claim in civil court. The simple reason for that is there is a cost associated with filing a complaint, serving a summons, and going to trial. Meanwhile, if you do not suffer any injury, you may only receive a nominal award of $1. But if you do suffer serious physical injuries, there is no doubt you will be in serious pain. Anyone who has broken a bone can tell you how painful it is. Not only is the initial injury painful, but every aspect of your life becomes more painful.
For example, if you break a clavicle in an auto accident, yes, you suffer nearly insurmountable pain at the time of impact. However, the pain does not stop there. You are in constant pain, whether you are trying to write with your hand at work, lying on your side to go to sleep at night, or even walking around for the first couple of months. The good news is that physical pain and suffering seek to compensate you for that pain. This aspect of your claim also compensates you for physical alterations to your appearance. For example, if you form a scar on your face, that is a physical injury. However, that claim also has an emotional aspect, which we discuss next.
Emotional
A physical injury is relatively easy to prove to a jury because it is tangible. All we need to do is show an x-ray to the jury, and they will understand just how bad a break is. This is especially true if a few jury members have broken bones themselves at some point in their lives or live with back pain. However, an emotional injury is a bit different. While some jurors will surely understand, others may think it is feeble to complain of an injury one cannot see. However, these injuries are real; we can prove them with expert testimony. Emotional injuries as part of pain and suffering include mental anguish, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and a diminished quality of life.
What Affects the Value of a Pain and Suffering Claim?
Economic or special damages tend to have exact dollar values. This is unlike pain and suffering damage. An award for pain and suffering damages depends on how moved a jury is by the evidence. Much of this is relative. For example, a jury would put a larger dollar amount on the pain a claimant must undergo for a broken leg than a sore finger. But how much does a sore finger entitle you to? Certainly not zero. The goal of monetary damages is to compensate the plaintiff for their pain and suffering due to a third party’s careless acts. But for the defendant, the plaintiff would not have had to deal with a sore finger.
On the other hand, a sore finger may hardly affect your life at all. Accordingly, it is easy to understand how the severity of an injury affects a pain and suffering claim when we consider its relativity. However, defining these factors is more challenging.
The Factors
The factors that affect the value of a pain and suffering claim include:
- The severity of the injury.
- Duration of recovery. This strongly correlates with the severity of your injury. For example, if you break a bone, it will likely take several months to recover fully. Meanwhile, a sore finger should be better in a couple of weeks.
- Impact on daily life. An award for pain and suffering is not limited to how much physical or emotional pain you are in. For example, suppose you compete in a recreational soccer league, which is a very important part of your life, and the injury you sustained in the car accident restricts your ability to participate in the championship game. In that case, that has a legitimate impact on your daily life. You deserve compensation for that. In reality, you deserve to play in that game. However, there is little we can do after the fact in a civil justice system. Accordingly, money damages is the best we can do.
- Credibility. The credibility of your evidence and the persuasiveness of your testimony is a monumental factor in the value of your claim. In the example above, where you cannot participate in your championship match, your testimony about how important that game is to you can compel a jury to award you a higher dollar amount. Meanwhile, if the jury is unconvinced that you care very much about missing the game, it will have the opposite effect.
Caps on Pain and Suffering Awards
There is no cap on general damages in Washington, DC. However, Maryland caps them at $890,000 in 2024. § 3-2A-09 of the Md. Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code governs caps on pain and suffering awards in Maryland.
Hire a Lawyer for a Pain and Suffering Claim
The lawyers at Gelb & Gelb have been practicing accident injury law in Maryland and Washington, DC, for over 70 years. During that time, we have handled nearly every type of case imaginable. We have had clients suffer all sorts of pain, and we know exactly how to maximize the compensation you receive for your injuries.
Call our office today for a free case evaluation at (202) 331-7227.
