Pain and suffering are inherently subjective. It’s all about your personal experience of distress, and that’s something that can’t be easily translated into hard evidence. No one can take an X-ray of your mental anguish or measure the weight of your anxiety. So how do you prove something so intangible? Thankfully, that’s not your job.
There are top personal injury lawyers who can bring a wealth of experience and strategy to your case, especially when it comes to proving pain and suffering.
A lawyer’s job is not just to fight for compensation based on the easily measurable parts of your case but also to give weight and credibility to your personal experience of pain, mental anguish, and the unseen toll the accident has taken on your life.
What Exactly is Pain and Suffering?
When we talk about pain and suffering, we’re referring to the ongoing physical and emotional distress that an injury causes. This could include chronic pain that doesn’t go away, like persistent back pain from a car accident or ongoing migraines after a head injury.
Pain and suffering also cover the emotional and psychological scars that come with the injury. That might mean anxiety about re-injury, depression caused by a drastic change in your lifestyle, or even the trauma that can arise from the accident itself.
Your experience of pain is deeply personal, and even the most empathetic person may not fully grasp the depth of what you’re going through. Insurance companies and defendants know this, and they’ll often try to downplay or outright deny these claims.
The only person who will fight to validate the extent of your pain and suffering aside from you is your lawyer.
How a Lawyer Proves Pain and Suffering to the Court
Proving pain and suffering is a delicate and challenging part of any personal injury case, but it’s not something you have to face alone.
In fact, it is your lawyer’s job and you only have to follow their lead. A lawyer will help you collect all sorts of evidence that supports your claim of pain and suffering.
They may encourage you to keep a daily journal where you record your pain levels, how the injury is affecting your mood, and how it’s preventing you from enjoying activities you once did.
They can help you collect testimonies from family, friends, and coworkers who can speak to how your injury has changed your behavior, work performance, or social life.
Your lawyer will also help you get statements from your healthcare providers that describe not just the physical aspect of your injuries, but also the emotional toll. They’ll work with your doctors, psychologists, or even pain specialists to get clear, credible medical opinions on how your pain and suffering are impacting your life.
These professionals can provide objective evidence of how your injuries have affected your mental and emotional well-being, which can be a huge factor in proving pain and suffering.
Another important part of this process involves working with experts. A personal injury lawyer will often bring in outside professionals (such as vocational experts or maybe even life care planners) who can estimate the long-term costs and impacts of your injury.
If your injuries are preventing you from doing your job, or if you require ongoing medical treatment or therapy, these experts can calculate the lifetime costs of that care and tie it directly to the pain you’ve endured. No stone will be left unturned in the fight to ensure that all of your pain and suffering are accounted for.