A physical or psychological injury can have a severe impact on your health and family’s financial wellbeing. It can also affect your quality of life for years to come.
If you’ve experienced pain and suffering due to a personal injury, you may be eligible to claim damages. Find out what these damages are and how to make a claim for compensation so you can focus on your recovery.
Understanding personal injury claims
If you’ve suffered a physical or psychological injury after an accident – usually caused by someone else’s negligence – this is called a ‘personal injury’.
A personal injury may have minor impacts or it may be life-changing, as you take time off work and receive expensive medical treatment. Serious injuries can even impact your ability to work and live a full life in the future.
Common personal injury claims in Queensland are:
- motor vehicle accident – Compulsory Third Party insurance (CTP) claims
- workers compensation claims – statutory or common law claims
- medical negligence (or malpractice) claims
- public liability claims.
What is pain and suffering?
When you have a personal injury, you may suffer both economic and non-economic losses.
Economic losses can include:
- expenses for medical treatment and rehabilitation
- past and future lost income and superannuation
- necessary services, like domestic cleaning, nursing and equipment
- home or car modifications
- legal fees.
But there are also a non-economic losses that you may be eligible to claim for: pain and suffering. Unlike economic losses, pain and suffering damages compensate you for the intangible results of your injury, such as:
How do you claim pain and suffering damages?
Before you make a claim for pain and suffering damages, you should first seek legal advice. Non-economic losses are much more difficult to prove than economic losses.
An experienced personal injury lawyer can:
- tell you whether your injuries meet the thresholds for pain and suffering
- help you gather medical reports, documentation and other evidence you need to support your claim
- ensure you get the compensation you deserve.
A personal injury lawyer will guide you through the whole process, meet the required time limits and help you understand your rights.
Determining how much you can claim
The amount you can receive for pain and suffering is often less than for economic losses. There are criteria and thresholds that help determine whether you’re eligible. Every case is different and not all injuries meet the criteria. There are also caps on how much compensation you can receive for pain and suffering.
When you make a claim, you usually need a medical check that assesses several factors, including the extent of your injury and how it affects (and will affect) your life.
Whether your injury is physical or psychological, its severity is the most important factor in calculating pain and suffering damages. For example, serious injuries that require surgery and result in ongoing or chronic pain will lead to a higher payout than muscular injuries that will heal on their own without surgery.
Another factor is how your injury affects or will affect your daily life, including your ability to perform your work duties and daily activities, including domestic chores, hobbies and social activities.
If your injury has a major effect on these daily activities and ability to earn a living, you will receive a larger compensation amount.
Other factors that may be considered include effects on your:
- sleep
- mobility
- intellectual functioning
- ability to manage and care for yourself
- household and family duties
- sexual life
- enjoyment or overall quality of life.
Your age, occupation, income and overall health apart from your injury are also considered.
However, your personal injury doesn’t need to be life-altering for you to receive compensation. If you have a minor injury that will heal over a short time and have only a temporary impact on the above factors, you might still be eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation.
But more serious injuries that require surgery and a long time off work, and will impact your life for years to come may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – perhaps even more.
What proof do you need to claim pain and suffering?
Pain and suffering impacts from a personal injury can be difficult to prove. So it’s essential to gather the right type of evidence to support your claim. This proof can make or break your case and affect the amount of compensation you receive.
This is just some of the evidence you need to prove your claim for pain and suffering:
- Medical reports, expert assessments, treatment paperwork and other medical evidence from your treating doctor will prove the nature of your injury and its impact on your life. Other medical professionals may need to provide independent assessments about pre-existing injuries, your ability to work and perform daily tasks, and how much ongoing care you will need.
- You will need to provide financial documents such as tax returns, receipts and pay slips to show your previous income before the injury and the effect that losing this income will have on your life.
- Providing photos, videos, emails and witness statements can help prove that another party’s negligence caused your injury. The more evidence of the other party’s fault you can provide, the better for your case.
- Your particular case might require other evidence, such as receipts for out-of-pocket expenses and other documentation that shows pain and suffering due to your personal injury.
When you engage an experienced personal injury lawyer, they can assess your case and determine how much and what type of proof you need to claim pain and suffering.
How can Main Lawyers help?
Personal injury cases can be complex, and getting expert legal help can be the difference between winning and losing your case. At Main Lawyers, we offer a no-obligation initial consultation to discuss your case and assess the compensation you may be eligible for. And with our no-win, no-fee arrangement, you won’t pay any professional fees until your case settles. Contact us today to find out more
