Economic damages in a personal injury case are easy to calculate: the exact number of finances lost in regards to medical expenses, lost wages, future treatment, etc. are added up. What can be much more difficult to calculate, however, is a claimant’s exact value of noneconomic damages, especially seeing as there is no real pain and suffering calculator.
These damages are more difficult to calculate because they are not absolute in value, and assigning a monetary figure to a person’s pain can be subjective. The following considers a couple different methods for determining the value of your claim’s noneconomic damages.
The Multiplier Method
One of the most popular ways of determining a fair settlement award for noneconomic damages is the multiplier method. This method multiplies your total number of economic damages by a number (multiplier), between 1.5 and five.
You will use a number of factors to get to the multiplier for your case – the higher the number, the higher the amount of noneconomic damages recovered, obviously. You may receive a higher multiplier if you are of a young age (because the injury will affect you for a greater number of years), if your injuries are particularly severe or disabling, if you are not expected to fully recover, or if your injuries significantly impact your life.
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Daily Rate Method
The other way to calculate the value of your claim’s noneconomic damages is to use the daily rate method. The daily rate method is similar to the multiplier method except that rather than using a multiplier between 1.5 and five, you would use a per diem (i.e., per day) approach. To do this, you would assign a dollar amount to each day that you have suffered and multiply this amount by the number of days you suffer. For example, you may claim that you are entitled to $100 a day for 300 days, or $30,000.
How an Attorney Can Help
Knowing which method you should use or how to calculate the numbers can be complicated. When you work with a personal injury attorney, he can work on your behalf to prove that you deserve the maximum amount of pain and suffering damages possible.
To learn more about how an attorney can help and how to calculate damages in a personal injury case, reach out to the team at Bressman Law today. Contact us now to schedule your free case consultation by calling (614) 538-1116.
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