Bodily injuries cause intense pain, and accident victims should seek a favorable settlement from the person who hurt them. Unfortunately, winning a personal injury case requires detailed preparation and knowledge of the law. Call West Law Firm Personal Injury Lawyers to speak with a member of our team. Each year, hundreds of people in South Carolina are badly hurt in rollovers, car wrecks, slip and falls, dog bites, and other accidents. They are stuck at home trying to keep their sanity as pain keeps them awake all night. Some of them become irritable or even depressed, and the strongest painkillers don’t make people feel “normal.” Accident victims in South Carolina can receive pain and suffering compensation as part of a personal injury claim. But how much can you receive? Call our office to speak with a Moncks Corner personal injury lawyer with our firm.
Did You Suffer a Bodily Injury in an Accident?
South Carolina doesn’t let anyone seek financial compensation for pain and suffering. Typically, you need to have suffered some bodily contact. For example, a careless driver might have crashed into you as you crossed the street or smashed into your car as you waited at a red light. These are unwelcome, traumatic impacts.
In these situations, you can seek financial compensation for all economic losses that flow from the car accident: things like medical care and lost wages. But you can also seek compensation for pain and suffering.
What if you suffered no offensive contact? Generally, you can’t request compensation at all. For example, a driver might have almost hit you when they ran a red light at an intersection. This “near miss” accident has left you badly shaken, and you can’t sleep at night as you replay what happened.
Although you are struggling physically and emotionally, your “near miss” accident doesn’t qualify. In a car accident, compensation for pain and suffering usually requires offensive contact.
Cases Where You Suffered No Offensive Contact
There are exceptions to this “contact rule”:
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). The defendant intentionally caused emotional distress through outrageous and severe conduct, such as stalking or harassment. You can seek financial compensation for your distress, including any physical symptoms, like sleeplessness.
- Negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED). A person watches a child or other close relative get killed or injured. Although you suffered no offensive contact, your distress can manifest in physical symptoms which deserve compensation.
In both of these situations, the defendant has not touched you at all. Nonetheless, their conduct warrants compensation because of the effect on the victim.
Call our office if you want to discuss a possible emotional distress claim. However, most pain and suffering damages are sought for cases where our clients suffered a bodily injury. The law is very clear that you can receive pain and suffering compensation in those cases.
Is Your Pain Too Minor?
Some people worry their injuries aren’t serious enough to warrant compensation. That’s a realistic consideration. For example, you might have scraped your knee when you slipped and fell inside a store. That type of injury might have required only a bandage from your medicine cabinet, and the pain you experience is minimal.
Extremely minor injuries might not be worth much at all. Instead, our clients usually receive compensation for pain and suffering when they endure significant injuries:
- Concussions
- Whiplash
- Fractures
- Chest injuries
- Organ damage
- Eye injuries
- Disfiguring injuries (burns, lacerations, etc.)
- Amputations
- Paralysis
- Spinal column injuries
- Back injuries
These types of injuries require professional medical care, including a trip to the hospital. Further, you will likely need to miss at least a little work and require prescription pain medication to manage your agony. Call our office so we can review the accident and your injuries.
Comparative Fault & Pain and Suffering Damages
Accident victims will receive no compensation in South Carolina if they are mostly to blame for the accident. That’s how our state’s comparative fault rule works in practice.
The Supreme Court created this law because it was fairer than the old law, which prohibited you from receiving any compensation if you contributed to an accident in even a small way. Now, if you are 50% or less to blame, you can get compensation, but it is reduced by your share of fault.
Comparative fault applies to all damages, even pain and suffering. Let’s say your case is worth $60,000, including medical bills and a fair amount for pain and suffering. If you are 33% to blame, then $40,000 is the maximum amount you can receive in damages.
Calculating the Value of Pain and Suffering Compensation
How much pain and suffering compensation can you receive? The reality is that there’s no hard-and-fast rule about the value of bodily pain. Medical care is easy to calculate—share your medical bills or receipts with your medical team. The same is true of lost income—we can look at a pay stub to calculate how much you should request.
But how do you put a price tag on pain? Some firms recommend using a “multiplier.” They look at your economic damages and then multiply them by 2-6 to arrive at a fair amount for pain and suffering.
We don’t think a “multiplier” method is helpful. Instead, the true value of pain and suffering is subjective. For example, you might have suffered a horrifying cut on your face. Although it only cost a couple thousand in stitches, you end up with an embarrassing, disfiguring scar. In this type of situation, we can request your economic damages a lot more than two times.
Do You Have Questions about Pain and Suffering? Schedule a Free Consultation Today
Please call our offices to discuss compensation for pain and suffering, as well as other damages related to an accident. Our clients deserve fair treatment in personal injury cases, and we opened our doors to provide services to the Berkeley County community. West Law Firm Personal Injury Lawyers has served the Lowcountry since 1945, and we still believe in the same high standard of professionalism.