You may have heard the phrase “pain and suffering” before, but what does it actually mean in a legal context?
When you’ve been injured as a result of a car crash, motorcycle crash, or another type of personal injury like a slip and fall, sometimes the injuries and mental anguish it can cause can severely impact a victim’s life. This can manifest itself in both physical and mental stress as well as lost wages—basically anything that can lead to a lowered qualify of life than what they had before the incident.
Have you been in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence? Here is more information on what constitutes pain and suffering, and why you should seek legal representation so that you may get fairly compensated for this life-altering incident.
HOW ARE PAIN AND SUFFERING DEFINED?
In personal injury cases, pain and suffering are defined as a plaintiff suffering physical, emotional, and mental injuries due to an accident. Pain and suffering are divided into two categories: physical and mental.
In physical cases, the pain and suffering are caused by the physical pain and discomfort that the plaintiff has felt since the accident. In mental pain and suffering cases, the stress that the plaintiff feels is fear, anger, insomnia, anxiety, loss of enjoyment of life, PTSD, or depression.
HOW ARE DAMAGES CALCULATED?
When a plaintiff is trying to prove that the defendant was negligent, they must prove fault. For example, if you were in a car accident with a commercial truck, it must be proven that the driver was negligent doing something like talking on their cell phone or driving over the required hours a trucker is allowed to be on the road.
You must then present evidence of losses, which can get a bit tricky when it’s a pain and suffering case—particularly when the pain and suffering are mental and not outwardly visible. Any documentation you can provide to show how the incident has impacted your life and ability to make a paycheck such as medical treatment or documentation from friends and family members will help your case.
When you are suffering from an accident that may have been caused by someone else’s negligence in Georgia, you need legal representation that will be on your side. Click here for more information about the Randy Fry team, pain and suffering attorneys.
