What type of injury have you suffered?
Car Accident
- Car Accident
- Head Injury
- Premises Liability
- Products Liability
- Truck Accident
- Wrongful Death
Car Accident
HABLAMOS ESPAÑOL
(877) 880-4090In addition to sky-high medical expenses, lost wages and other financial losses, it is not uncommon for motorcycle accident victims to live with excruciating pain, mental trauma and long-term emotional duress. The courts refer to the former type of losses as “economic damages.” They refer to the latter type of losses as “non-economic damages.”
Calculating economic damages in a motorcycle accident case is cut and dried. To determine how much the defendant or its insurer owes you, the courts will simply refer to your medical bills, paystubs, therapy costs and other receipts for services directly related to your accident. Estimating pain and suffering, on the other hand, is not so easy, as pain and suffering is a personal experience and does not come with any set value. The extent to which pain and suffering affect daily life varies from person to person and, therefore, cannot be demonstrated with an express dollar amount.
Yet, because pain and suffering are real afflictions, and because one or both can drastically reduce your quality of life, the courts must be able to calculate a fair value. To do so, most courts use one of two formulas.
“Pain and suffering” is a legal term that the courts use to describe the way in which your physical injuries have impacted other aspects of your life. More specifically, the courts use the term to account for any physical pain, emotional duress and trauma you may suffer either because of your actual injuries or because of the accident itself.
Everyone reacts to traumatic incidents differently, so there is no set list of what and what does not qualify as “pain and suffering.” Yet, some types of damages are more common than others. Examples of pain and suffering damages that courts typically award include the following:
Because of how traumatic many motorcycle accidents are, many motorcycle accident victims and/or their loved ones end up receiving some compensation for their non-economic damages. How much, however, depends on the severity of the victim’s injuries and to what extent they affect his or her daily life.
When it comes to economic damages, you can only receive up to the dollar amount you paid out of pocket for any services related to your recovery. Out-of-pocket expenses may include but are not limited to the following:
These are just a few examples of direct costs associated with accident injuries. However, you can also file a claim for lost wages, both past and future, and for loss of earning capacity. To calculate past lost wages, you must simply take the number of hours or days you missed because of your injury — including the time you took off work to travel to and from doctor’s appointments — and multiply it by your hourly wage. To calculate future lost wages, you would use more or less the same process, except you would need a medical professional to testify as to how long he or she anticipates you will be unable to work. If you lose benefits because of your time off work, you can also file a claim for those using a prorated formula.
Unlike economic damages, pain and suffering damages are difficult to calculate for one main reason: they lack a set dollar value. Without a set dollar value to work with, it is very difficult for a judge, jury or insurance company to say that a person’s mental duress is worth X amount, or that his or her level of pain warrants this amount. For this reason, most deciding parties award pain and suffering damages based on a perceived level of pain and anguish.
Though the value of a person’s pain and suffering all boils down to perception, the courts do attempt to keep things fair by providing decision-makers a choice of two formulas to use: the multiplier technique and the per diem approach.
The multiplier approach is the most used technique for assessing pain and suffering damages in a motorcycle accident case. This is because it offers the most straightforward way of calculating what are otherwise incalculable damages.
To put a value on one’s suffering using this approach, the judge or jury would add up the total value of all economic damages, ranging from medical expenses to future lost wages, and then multiply that figure by between 1.5 and 5. The courts refer to this latter number as “the multiplier” and it is meant to serve as a rating for how severe one’s affliction is. To determine a fair multiplier, the deciding parties will consider a few factors:
In rare cases, the deciding parties will set a multiplier that is greater than five. This typically happens when injuries are permanent and either life-threatening or debilitating, such as brain injuries or spinal cord injuries.
If the courts use the per diem method to calculate pain and suffering, you would receive payment for each day following the date of the accident until you reach the point of maximum medical improvement. Whereas with the multiplier method the deciding parties set the multiplier, you set the daily rate via the per diem approach.
While you may be tempted to set a high daily rate, know that the courts or insurance companies have the option to turn it down. A good rule of thumb is to set a daily rate that is equivalent to your daily earnings, with the argument being that the pain you live with each day is equal to the effort of going to work. If the pain is greater than said effort, you must be able to justify how so if you hope to secure a higher daily rate.
Once you and the opposing parties agree on a daily rate, the courts would then calculate the rate by the number of days you suffered. For instance, if your daily rate is $150 and you suffered for 280 days, your pain and suffering damages would amount to $42,000.
If you sustained severe injuries in a motorcycle accident and you hope to recover compensation for more than just your economic losses, it is important that you partner with an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer. A skilled attorney can not only help you navigate the claims process but also advise you on what you need to do to maximize your compensation. To start building your case today, schedule your free initial consultation with Fielding Law Auto Accident Attorneys.