Posted on:May 27, 2023
In a personal injury case, you may be entitled to compensation, particularly if someone else was negligent and caused your injuries. Calculating economic damages is fairly simple; you just add up the expenses, such as medical bills and lost wages.
Most accidents involve some degree of pain and suffering. These are considered general damages and can vary as they are unique to each victim. Calculating how much money you should receive for these emotional damages, though, is not an easy task. It is not easy to put a dollar amount on how much pain and suffering you have experienced. However, insurance companies and lawyers will typically use one of two approaches — the multiplier method or the daily rate (per diem) method.
The multiplier method takes into account all your economic damages and multiplies it by a number between 1.5 and 5. Five would be for the most severe injuries, while 1.5 would be for more minor, temporary injuries. The per diem method takes into account how many days you are in pain and multiplies it by a daily rate. The daily rate may vary, but it should be the amount of money you would have earned at your job if you went to work each day. This method works best with short-term injuries, not permanent ones.
The method you will use to arrive at a figure for pain and suffering will be determined by your lawyer. Your lawyer will assess your injuries in more detail to see how much money you should be awarded. Some of the factors involved in determining the amount of damages to be awarded include:
While economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, are fairly easy to calculate, emotional injuries are much harder. Lawyers often use multipliers and formulas to estimate the damages.
The Arizona personal injury attorneys at Saavedra Law Firm can help you estimate damages and obtain full compensation after being injured by someone else’s negligence. Call (602) 753-8917 or fill out the online form to schedule a consultation.
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