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Damages for Pain and Suffering in Truck Accident Cases

Accidents involving larger commercial trucks often result in devastating injuries for those inside traditional passenger vehicles throughout the state of Arizona. In most cases, victims will be able to recover compensation for their losses if the crash was caused by the careless or negligent actions of a truck driver or trucking company. Victims should be able to recover various types of compensation, including coverage of their medical bills, lost wages, property damage expenses, and more. They should also be able to recover compensation for their pain and suffering damages. Here, we want to define what “pain and suffering” means in these situations and look at how these damages are calculated.

What is Pain and Suffering After a Truck Accident in Arizona?

When we look at the definition available directly from the Legal Information Institute published by the Cornell Law School, we can see that pain and suffering “refers to the physical discomfort and emotional distress that are compensable as non-economic damages.”

What distinguishes pain and suffering damages from other types of economic damages in a truck accident case is the ability to calculate these types of losses. For economic damages like medical bills, lost wages, property damage expenses, and out-of-pocket expenses, injury victims and their attorney will have bills, receipts, estimates, pay stubs, and more that they can add up to get a total.

Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering do not come with bills or receipts that can be added up very easily. These losses are more immeasurable, but that does not make them any less real. Some of the most common types of “pain and suffering” types of damages include the following:

  • Physical pain and suffering
  • Mental and emotional pain and suffering
  • Loss of enjoyment of life damages
  • Scarring and disfigurement damages
  • Loss of consortium damages for a spouse

Calculating Pain and Suffering Damages for an Arizona Truck Accident Claim

There are a few ways to calculate pain and suffering in the aftermath of an Arizona truck accident. Typically, an attorney will calculate these damages in one of two ways:

  1. Multiplier method. This refers to an attorney adding up all of the economic damages the victim has sustained and then multiplying this total by a set number, usually ranging from 1.5 to 5. For example, if a truck accident victim sustains $100,000 worth of economic damages, an attorney may use a multiplier of “three” to reach a non-economic total of $300,000.
  2. Per diem method. A per diem method will essentially assign a dollar value for pain and suffering to every day from the time a person sustains a truck accident injury until the time they have reached maximum medical recovery. For example, if the per diem amount is $200 and it takes an injury victim 400 days to recover, then the total for non-economic damages will be $80,000 ($200 x 400).

Regardless of what method you think will be most appropriate for your particular Arizona truck accident claim, it is crucial that you work with an attorney before accepting any type of settlement. These cases can become incredibly complicated, but an Arizona truck accident lawyer will be able to conduct a complete investigation into the incident, determine liability, and help negotiate full compensation for your losses.