When seeking compensation after a serious car accident, you’ll want to gather and present evidence that speaks to the full spectrum of your damages. One major portion of your losses is composed of those that are economic in nature, including your medical expenses and lost wages. But your non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, can make up a significant part of your losses and your request for compensation. But even though these losses might seem obvious to you, they can be difficult to prove. Yet, it’s up to you to convince the jury to rule in your favor when requesting these damages.
This may leave you wondering how to prove your non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering. It’s an important question that you’ll have to answer before negotiating or litigating your case, which is why we want to take some time in this post to look at steps you can take to better prove the pain and suffering that you’ve experienced and for which you should be compensated.
How can you prove your pain and suffering damages?
There isn’t a cookie cutter approach to a personal injury claim. Instead, you’ll want to assess the options for building your case and utilize those that make the most sense under your unique set of circumstances. With that in mind, here are some tips that we hope you’ll find helpful as you analyze the best way to prove your pain and suffering damages:
- Demonstrate the severity of your injuries: The more significant and painful your injuries are, the more you’re likely to recover in pain and suffering damages. While your own testimony about the agony that you’ve experienced can go a long way here, so, too, can testimony from friends, family members and experts who can attest to the amount of pain you’ve experienced, how the pain has disrupted your everyday life and the extent and prognosis of your medical condition.
- Show your chances of recovery: If your injuries are bound to be long-lasting or permanent, then the pain and suffering that you experience is amplified. You’ll therefore likely benefit from expert testimony about the long-term ramifications of your injuries and your likelihood of recovering from them.
- Use a journal to highlight the impact of your injuries: To give a clear picture of how your accident injuries have led to pain and suffering, you need to give the jury a snapshot of daily life after your wreck. Keeping a journal can be an effective way to do so. This record can highlight the pain you experience, rate the severity of any pain that you feel and detail how your pain negatively affects your ability to live a normal life and enjoy the activities that you love. The more detail you can include here the better.
- Secure treatment that aligns with your claimed pain and suffering: If you try to claim extensive pain and suffering damages but don’t seek treatment for it, then it’ll be all too easy for the defense to paint you as being disingenuous. So, you should be sure to seek out treatment for your physical and mental injuries so that you can advance your recovery and create a record of the harm you’ve experienced as well as what you’ve done to try to treat it.
You get one chance to present your personal injury case and fight for the compensation you deserve. Therefore, before stepping into court, you have to have compelling evidence and strong legal arguments in your corner. If those are things that you think you need assistance gathering and developing, then now may be the best time to discuss the facts of your case with your personal injury attorney. Hopefully then you can rest assured that you’ve done everything possible to recover the compensation you deserve.