Pain and suffering can be almost any difficulty caused by the accident related to a physical injury, besides lost wages and medical expenses.
When lawyers and judges talk about “pain and suffering” they usually mean all the damages you can recover besides lost wages and medical bills, which are your economic damages. The formal term for this is “noneconomic damages”, and it includes physical pain and suffering and a lot of other things.
If your case goes to trial in Ohio, the judge will tell the jury that you are entitled to damages for:
“[noneconomic damage] that results from [the victim’s] injury loss, including, but not limited to, pain and suffering; loss of society, consortium, companionship, care, assistance, attention, protection, advice, guidance, counsel, instruction, training, or education; disfigurement; mental anguish; and any other intangible loss.”
This means you are entitled to receive money for a number of things caused by the accident, in addition to medical bills and lost wages. Some of them are:
• Your inability to take care of your disabled wife, because you were injured in the accident.
• Being deprived of your ability to play golf, which was your favorite sport
• Not being able to be there for your wife and kids, because your pain distracts you from their needs, and forces you to concentrate on your own.
• The concern you have over your future –about the surgery you have to have, about the loss of job you’re afraid of because of your injury, about what’s going to happen the next time you get into your car and drive down the road where the accident happened.
• The cost of learning a new trade so you can try to approach your old income level, when you’ve been robbed of your job by your injury.
• The jeers a teenager hears – or the stares she can feel – as she walks down the street, her cheek scarred as she recovers from a dogbite.
• And of course, the shooting pains that go down your back, or your arm, or over the top of your head – after the injury – that were never there before the accident.
There are a thousand examples like this. The only requirement is that the damage you are seeking must have been caused by the accident.
Some of these “noneconomic damages” require proof by a doctor’s testimony. But if it’s a matter of common sense, and common experience, expert testimony may be unnecessary.
I have been a lawyer over 30 years. A good lawyer will look for whatever is unique about your case; that is what persuades an insurance adjuster to come up with more money. If you have a personal injury case in Cincinnati, Ohio or if you want to know what your lawsuit is worth, talk with an experienced Cincinnati injury lawyer> about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 513-621-4775.
Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed.
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