Suing For Pain And Suffering After A Truck Accident

Truck accidents often cause serious injuries and extensive property damage. Victims injured in a collision with a large commercial vehicle are sure to experience some degree of pain, discomfort, and mental distress while they recover.

If this happens to you, your pain and suffering can be calculated and included in your jury award or settlement.

Get Help Proving Pain and Suffering

Proving pain and suffering after a truck accident isn’t easy, but an experienced Atlanta truck accident lawyer can help. With your attorney’s assistance, you can document your pain and suffering and make a reasonable demand for compensation.

If the liability insurer refuses to offer reasonable compensation for your pain and suffering, your attorney can assist you with filing a lawsuit to seek the full amount of your damages.

Learn more about your right to claim pain and suffering and how it applies to your specific case. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our experienced truck accident lawyers in Atlanta.

Call the Rafi Law firm at 404-948-3311 or contact us online to schedule your free case review today.

What Are Pain and Suffering Damages?

After you’ve been hurt in an accident due to the negligence of a truck driver or their employer, you deserve compensation for all of your losses. This includes money to cover medical bills and property damage. At the same time, it can include money compensating you for quality of life impacts.

Pain and suffering can encompass many types of non-material losses, including:

• Acute pain as a result of the injury
• Chronic pain while the injury victim heals
• Discomfort and distress, such as the inability to scratch an itch inside a cast
• An inability to participate in activities that could bring you joy
• An inability to spend precious moments with children and loved ones
• The mental hardship of being bedridden or having limited mobility
• The embarrassment of requiring care or not having full control of bodily functions
• Unpleasant accommodations required for recovery, such as an all-liquid diet
• Permanent disability, scarring, or disfigurement

An experienced Atlanta truck accident attorney will help you put a fair dollar figure with your pain and suffering,

What Factors Affect the Size of the Pain and Suffering Award?

Because pain and suffering can be difficult to quantify, the amount of compensation will vary.

Some factors the insurer or jury will need to consider include:

• The severity of the initial injury
• How traumatic the injury was, such as whether the victim had to see their own limbs disabled
• The degree of pain associated with that injury according to medical professionals
• How restrictive the treatment was, such as whether it required a cast, intensive care, or extended bed rest
• The likelihood of the injury to result in permanent effects
• How much the injury disrupted the lives of the victim’s family
• The total amount of economic loss suffered

Monetary losses can be documented in dollars and cents. However, the at-fault person’s insurance provider may have different ideas about what they view as a fair amount.

Truck accident injury victims will need to work closely with an attorney with experience handling such cases. Their lawyer can solicit the opinions of experts and refer to amounts awarded in prior cases. Doing so can help determine a fair amount to request, and how likely the insurer/jury is to honor the full amount.

Proving Pain and Suffering

There are two main methods of proving pain and suffering:

• Obtaining statements from the victim, who can accurately and specifically describe their own pain and suffering
• Using the opinions of medical experts and past victims to estimate the likely amount of pain and suffering involved in this specific case

The best course of action for the first method is for the victim to maintain a journal of their experiences while they recover. They don’t need to make detailed entries, but they should note every instance where they endure pain or a specific limitation.

For example, if the injury victim had trouble sleeping the night before because of pain caused by a mending fracture, they should note it that morning. If they were unable to reach an item in the pantry or were forced to miss a child’s baseball game, they should note that as well. Dated entries with descriptions of specific moments of hardship, pain, and inconvenience work together to build a narrative of pain and suffering.

The second method involves research on the part of your personal injury attorney. They’ll request statements from medical specialists who have treated injuries like yours. They may also refer to testimony in prior cases where victims had a similar injury.

Documenting pain and suffering lowers the chances that an insurer will attempt to reduce or deny the damages. In the event that a reasonable settlement cannot be reached, this documentation will serve as evidence in the ensuing lawsuit.

Speak to an Atlanta Truck Accident Lawyer to Learn About Pain and Suffering

Because pain and suffering can be difficult to prove and because there is so much variability from case to case, you must call an experienced attorney.

The Rafi Law Firm provides Atlanta truck accident victims with experienced legal representation and guidance. We have a history of winning case results to prove that we can take on cases like yours.

Call 404-948-3311 or contact us online to find out more about how we can help you claim pain and suffering. Your first case review is always free, and there’s no obligation to work with us afterward, so call now.