If a car accident on North Carolina roads leaves an individual with a severe injury, it can change his or her entire life.
A broken leg, head injury or back injury can take a long time to heal. All the while, it can prevent individuals from working or participating in their favorite activities.
In a recent blog post, we discussed how the effects of a car crash injury can impact one’s mental health as well. The physical and emotional impacts of such injuries can be overwhelming. However, individuals can recover compensation for this long-lasting pain.
Collecting compensation for pain and suffering
It is common to hear the phrase “pain and suffering” in these cases, but what does it really mean? The term encompasses the distress, pain and trauma that individuals may experience after an injury or accident – at both the physical and mental levels.
North Carolina law allows individuals to collect financial damages for the pain and suffering they face after an accident. However, calculating the amount of damages for pain and suffering is not always easy.
Injured individuals often can collect economic damages, including:
- Medical expenses;
- Lost wages; and
- Property damage.
These three types of damages have a financial value, where non-economic damages like pain and suffering do not.
So, how do you determine pain and suffering damages?
Calculating the damages for pain and suffering first requires individuals to provide proof of the physical and mental distress they experienced. After all, these damages are subjective to each individual’s situation.
To prove pain and suffering, individuals should:
- Document how the injuries impact their daily life, including one’s relationships;
- Write down all symptoms they experience, such as symptoms of depression;
- Obtain testimonies from health professionals who treated and diagnosed them; and
- Keep a record of all the treatment they receive, including the medications they take.
It can be tough to relive these difficult experiences as well as share them with the court, but it is critical that individuals do not leave out any details in their records. All of these details are important to help attorneys and courts determine how the accident impacted an individual’s life, quantify their pain and suffering and ensure they receive the full and fair compensation they deserve.