How Much Is Pain and Suffering Worth in a Car Accident in California?
The value of pain and suffering in a car accident varies widely based on several factors, including the severity of your injuries, the duration of your suffering, and the physical limitations your injuries create. Financial damages such as medical bills, property damage, and lost wages are easy to verify using documentation, but pain and suffering damages are harder to quantify on paper. However, this doesn’t mean pain and suffering are less important. The trauma and long-term emotional impact of a car accident is often the greatest loss.
Although no sum of money can take away the pain and emotional losses in a car accident, pain and suffering damages can provide financial security and the means to enjoy your life to the fullest extent possible post-injury. Insurance companies typically use two methods to calculate pain and suffering damages: multiplier and per diem. No matter which method an insurer uses, our California car accident lawyers will work to ensure you receive the pain and suffering damages you deserve.
“Pain and suffering is often the biggest damage you can recover if you’re significantly hurt.“
- How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated in Auto Accidents?
- Factors Influencing the Value of Pain and Suffering
- Does California Have any Limits on Pain and Suffering?
- Time Limits to Recover Pain and Suffering Damages
- Why Trust Cutter Law to Get You Full Compensation for Pain and Suffering?
- Schedule Your Free Consultation Today
How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated in Auto Accidents?
Insurance companies typically use monetary losses as a starting point for calculating pain and suffering damages. Monetary losses are known in the legal world as special or economic damages. Pain and suffering damages compensate for a group of losses that include physical pain, emotional distress, scarring and disfigurement, disability, inconvenience, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of companionship, and other emotional losses. These types of damages are known as general or non-economic damages.
Insurance companies’ most common approaches for calculating non-economic damages in California injury cases are the multiplier and per diem methods. The multiplier method uses total monetary losses as a starting point, while the per diem method starts with lost earnings.
Multiplier Method
This multiplier method is the more common method insurance companies use to calculate non-economic damages. In this method, economic damages are the base figure for determining the value of non-economic damages. The multiplier method uses the following formula to calculate pain and suffering:
Pain and Suffering = Economic Damages × Multiplier
Economic damages include the total of all of your monetary losses stemming from the accident, including the following:
- Current medical bills
- Anticipated future medical bills
- Lost wages
- Lost future earning capacity
- Property damage
- Transportation to the doctor
- The value of domestic services you can no longer provide
- Lost inheritance
- Loss of the income of a family member who died
- Funeral expenses of a family member who died
The multiplier is a number the insurance company assigns to your pain and suffering based on the severity. It is generally between 1.5 and 5, with 1.5 used in the most minor cases and five in the most severe cases.
The Multiplier Method in Action
Suppose your medical bills are $100,000, your expenses are $10,000, and your lifetime lost wages are $200,000. If the insurance company determines your pain and suffering are moderate, it may assign a multiplier of 3. In this case, the formula would work as shown in the example below.
Step 1: Calculate economic damages.
$100,000 + $10,000 + $200,000 = $310,000 in economic damages
Step 2: Plug the economic damages and multiplier into the formula to calculate pain and suffering damages.
$310,000 in economic damages X multiplier of 3 = $930,000
In this scenario, your total damages would be calculated by totaling the economic and non-economic damages as follows:
$310,000 + $930,000 = $1.24 million.
If the multiplier were raised to 5, your non-economic damages would be $1.55 million, and your total damages would be $1.86 million.
Insurance companies may attempt to assign a lower multiplier than you deserve. Our compassionate accident lawyers won’t let the insurance company minimize your pain. We provide every client with a personalized experience in a family-like environment, allowing us to understand the extent of your suffering and fight effectively for the compensation you deserve.
Per Diem Method
The formula for the per diem method is as follows:
Pain and Suffering = Daily Rate X Number of Days
The daily rate is often your lost daily earnings. The number of days is based on the length of time your pain and suffering are expected to last because of your injury. For example, if you normally earn $300 per day, and the insurance company or a jury estimates your pain and suffering will last for a year, the per diem formula would work as follows:
$300 daily rate X 365 days of suffering = $109,500.
If your injuries leave you with lifelong disabilities, the per diem could result in tens of millions of dollars. The number of days used in the formula may be based on your life expectancy. For example, if you have a life expectancy of 20 years following your injury, the number of days would be 365 X 20, or 7,300. If your previous daily wages were $300, the per diem formula would yield the following pain and suffering damages:
$300 daily rate X 7,300 days of suffering = $2.19 million in pain and suffering damages.
Factors Influencing the Value of Pain and Suffering
The factors that influence pain and suffering damages will vary based on which method the insurer uses to calculate your damages. In the multiplier method, severe pain and suffering results in a higher multiplier. The following factors may influence what multiplier the insurer uses:
- The severity of your physical pain
- The degree of your emotional distress
- The activities you can no longer enjoy because of your injuries
- The social impact of your injuries
- Your ability to work in your chosen profession
- The medical and surgical treatment you must endure
- Whether your injuries have left you with visible scarring or disfigurement
- Whether your injuries require you to live in a nursing facility
- The disabilities and limitations you are left with
- The daily challenges you face because of your injuries
If the per diem method is used, the primary factor affecting the daily rate in the formula will be your total earnings before the accident. Thus, this calculation will be tied to the type of work you did before the accident.
“Pain and suffering could be worth tens of millions of dollars if you’ve had the tragic misfortune of being paralyzed or permanently injured.“
Does California Have any Limits on Pain and Suffering?
California Civil Code 3333.4 restricts you from recovering pain and suffering damages if you are convicted of a DUI in connection with the accident or you were driving without insurance. However, the law makes an exception for uninsured drivers when the accident is caused by a drunk driver who is ultimately convicted of the crime. As long as you were not driving without insurance or under the influence when the accident occurred, California places no limits on the pain and suffering damages you can recover.
“We’ve represented plenty of folks who sadly have been permanently injured or have needed surgery as a result of severe car accidents, and they need to be compensated for how this has changed their life for the rest of their life and so that can be very large amounts and we hope there’s enough insurance to take care of.” – Brooks Cutter
Time Limits to Recover Pain and Suffering Damages
The California car accident statute of limitations requires you to file a lawsuit no later than two years after the accident. However, you shouldn’t wait to contact a knowledgeable car accident lawyer when you suffer an injury. Our attorneys are dedicated to recovering the highest compensation available for every client. However, pursuing justice requires strong evidence, which may only be available for a short period after your accident. Contact us today to protect your right to full compensation.
Why Trust Cutter Law to Get You Full Compensation for Pain and Suffering?
Insurance companies are primarily concerned with their bottom line. They will use the lowest multipliers and daily values to calculate your pain and suffering and minimize the payout. An insurance company may pressure you to accept a settlement shortly after the accident before your injuries’ long-term effects are ascertainable. These early settlement offers are almost always significantly lower than your damages, especially when considering long-term pain and suffering.
Our award-winning California personal injury lawyers have over 130 years of combined experience, and we have recovered hundreds of millions in compensation for injured accident victims, often from insurance companies that attempted to lowball our clients. We offer compassionate service to every client in a family-like environment. We will take the time to get to know you and your family and understand the full impact of your injuries, enabling us to tell your story compellingly and maximize your results.
When you have our attorneys on your side, you will have our entire law firm fighting for you. Rather than being stuck with a single attorney and limited to that attorney’s skill set, you will benefit from our attorneys’ combined knowledge, resources, and skills.
Schedule Your Free Consultation Today
We are a family-oriented law firm that sees clients not as cases but as people. We are dedicated to open communication with every client and making you feel welcome when you call or stop by our office. We have seen firsthand how devastating serious injuries can be for the victim and the whole family, and we are passionate about getting the results our clients deserve.
You have nothing to lose by working with our top-rated attorneys. We work on a contingency fee basis, and you only pay fees if we win. If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact us today to schedule a free case evaluation.
Brooks has a long-established, respected reputation as a skilled trial attorney and a record of proven success.
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