What You Need To Know About Pain And Suffering Compensation In Louisiana
Whether it is a drunk driver or a truck driver, a motorcycle or an eighteen-wheeler, getting into a motor vehicle accident does not just cause you physical injury. These accidents come with significant emotional and mental trauma that can leave you suffering for weeks, months, or even years after the accident. The law allows you to recover damages for medical bills and lost wages, but what about that trauma? Fortunately, the law has a provision for your trauma, too. You can ask for pain and suffering compensation after you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident. This compensation is not based on how much your medical bills cost or how much income you lost. Pain and suffering is solely meant to compensate you for the literal pain you feel, whether it is physical, emotional, or mental, as well as your suffering with issues such as emotional distress, mental anguish, depression, nightmares, and more. At the Louisiana Law Lady, Lauren Pilie uses her boldness, determination, and compassion to investigate your accident, gather evidence, and build a strong case. She will fight to protect your rights and get you the compensation you deserve under the law. Call (504) 470-3511 for a complimentary review of your case to learn more about your legal options.
What Is Pain and Suffering?
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines pain and suffering in the context of the United States legal system as being the emotional suffering caused by one person or organization to another person. However, pain and suffering is so much more than that simple definition describes.
Pain and suffering is physical discomfort, emotional distress, anguish, inconvenience, and emotional trauma that can accompany an injury. This includes physical pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress. Pain and suffering can also include mental anguish such as depression, insomnia, and anxiety.
What Kind of Evidence Is Needed for Pain and Suffering Compensation?
Pain and suffering compensation is a non-economic damage. Economic damages are damages such as medical bills or lost wages. They can be clearly and easily quantified by showing the bills or pay stubs. Non-economic damages are ones that can be easily represented by a dollar amount or easily proven with pay stubs or medical bills. However, an individual does still need credible evidence to support their pain and suffering claim.
Credible evidence can be medical records related to the individual’s accident-related injuries, witness testimonies, photos, or documentation of the individual’s emotional distress. Documentation of emotional distress may include journal entries, therapy notes, or other evidence that allows the court or jury to see that the individual is experiencing pain and suffering. Sometimes the best evidence of a person’s pain and suffering doesn’t come from the injured person. Instead, testimony from friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers can often be more insightful and more powerful than hearing it from the victim directly. The Louisiana Law Lady may be able to assist you in finding and collecting the appropriate evidence.
How Is Pain and Suffering Compensation Calculated in Louisiana?
Calculating some damages is easy. Medical bills can be added together to produce a figure for medical expenses, and an individual’s hourly or weekly wage can be multiplied by how many hours or weeks of work they missed to determine lost wages. Pain and suffering compensation is not based on a paid bill or financial loss. When individuals see legal advertisements on television or hear other people talking, indicating the compensation they received for pain and suffering after an accident, they may think the number was chosen randomly. This is not how it works, however. There are three ways that pain and suffering compensation may be calculated in Louisiana: the multiplier method, per diem or daily rate method, and comparison to similar cases.
Multiplier Method
While there are rare cases in which an individual can sue for pain and suffering without any economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, property damage, etc.), most of the time an individual claiming pain and suffering also has economic damages. Using the multiplier method means taking the total economic damages the individual suffered and multiplying that number by a factor. The factor is typically between one and five, and the higher the number, the more severe the individual’s injuries were.
An example of this method would be if an individual had $50,000 in economic damages and suffered a TBI and several broken bones during the accident. Due to the TBI, the individual is unable to work at the moment and is unlikely to return to their previous employment. In this case, the factor used may be a five, providing the individual with $250,000 in pain and suffering compensation in addition to their economic damages for a total of $300,000.
Per Diem Method
The per diem method designates a daily dollar amount to the individual’s pain and suffering. This daily rate is then multiplied by the number of days the individual is affected by their injury. Typically, the individual and their attorney, if they have hired one, work together to establish this amount. They may base it on the individual’s daily earnings in their employment, another figure that represents the value of the individual’s time and productivity, or a number based on the severity and impact of the individual’s injuries.
If an individual suffered a TBI and several broken bones in an accident, using the per diem method, the individual and their attorney may assign a daily rate of $250. If the individual is affected by their injury for 200 days, their pain and suffering compensation would be $50,000. Again, this compensation would be in addition to their economic damages. This approach is not admissible in all jurisdictions.
Comparison to Similar Cases
When using comparison to similar cases to determine pain and suffering, the court or jury looks at previous cases with similar injuries and settlements to establish a benchmark for the current case. This does not mean that they will give the exact same amount in the current case. Previous cases may be just a few weeks prior or they may be several years old. These cases provide a rough estimate of where the court or jury may want to begin when calculating pain and suffering damages. It can be difficult to find an analogous case as all cases are different. However, on the whole, watching jury verdicts come out week after week, you can get a rough understanding of the range in which juries evaluate certain types of injuries.
Key Things to Consider About Pain and Suffering Damages
While pain and suffering compensation is something individuals can request in their claim after an accident, there are some important factors that they should consider. None of these factors are intended to deter an individual from filing a claim or asking for pain and suffering damages. However, these key factors may impact the individual’s decision or encourage them to file sooner rather than later.
Comparative Fault
LA Civ. Code Art. 2323 provides that the state uses comparative fault in determining liability in personal injury cases. This means that in some cases, both parties may bear some responsibility for the accident. When this is the case, the injured individual may still file a claim for their injuries, including pain and suffering compensation. However, their compensation is reduced proportionally to the amount of fault assigned to them. For example, if an individual is injured in a truck accident and the court determines the injured individual was 25% responsible for the accident, they will only recover 75% of their damages.
The individual’s claim is reduced by the amount of fault, even if they are found to be mostly at fault. Therefore, even if an individual believes they may bear some liability, they may still want to explore their options regarding a claim. Additionally, if the injury is partly the fault of an intentional tortfeasor, the damages will not be reduced at all. An intentional tortfeasor is someone who commits an intentional tort. In other words, they deliberately acted or failed to act in a way that caused the injury.
Louisiana’s Statute of Limitations
La. Civ. Code Art. 3493.1 gives injured individuals two years from the date of the injury to file a claim. This is a new development. Prior to July 1, 2024, it was just one year! After the statute of limitations has expired, the individual may be barred from recovering damages. There are some exceptions, such as if the injured individual is a minor or certain actions involving permanent disability. An attorney may be able to assist an individual in determining how the statute of limitations (called prescription in Louisiana) applies to their case.
Evidence Needed to Establish Pain and Suffering
While there are rare cases in which an individual can sue for pain and suffering compensation without any other damages, most cases require the individual to provide evidence of their pain and suffering. This means the individual will likely need medical records documenting their injuries, treatment, and recovery to establish the extent of their pain and suffering. Other evidence may also be useful, such as a journal that logs the individual’s pain and activity levels on a daily basis or witness testimony as to the change in the individual’s mental and emotional state. Medical records will likely be the most beneficial and convincing evidence, so individuals should begin gathering those records as soon as possible after their injury.
Louisiana’s Damage Caps
Motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls, and most other personal injury claims allow the injured individual to collect compensation without a cap. In other words, there is no limit to the amount they can collect. However, there are two exceptions to this. La. Rev. Stat. § 40:1231.2(B)(1) caps the total amount of both economic and noneconomic damages at $500,000 in medical malpractice cases. The state does allow one exception for future medical expenses, per La. Rev. Stat. § 40:1231.3(A).
The second exception is damages in a lawsuit against the government. La. Rev. Stat. § 13:5106(B) caps government lawsuit damages at $500,000. This law also makes an exception for future medical expenses that the individual may incur after the judgment.
How a Louisiana Personal Injury Attorney May Be Able to Assist You
Trucking accidents, motor vehicle accidents and other personal injuries can derail your life and cause significant emotional and mental trauma. When you file a lawsuit to recover medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages, you can also ask for pain and suffering compensation. A Louisiana personal injury attorney may be able to assist you in gathering evidence to prove your claim, calculating how much compensation to ask for, and protecting your rights during settlement negotiations or during trial, if it comes to that. Contact the Louisiana Law Lady at (504) 470-3511 to schedule a consultation and learn more about how to recover the compensation you are entitled to under the law.