After a car accident in Miami, the term “pain and suffering” will come up quite often. If you or a loved one has been injured by negligence from another party in a car accident in Miami, you may be entitled to financial compensation for the losses that you may suffer. Losses can be medical bills, lost wages, ability to work, and pain and suffering. This is just a shortened list of losses that you may suffer, and individuals may go through different levels of pain and suffering. However, this is only possible if it is determined that the at-fault party was the other party. If YOU are the at-fault party, financial compensation for your injuries may be very hard to prove in court. But, let’s say that the defendant is the at-fault party and their negligence may have caused your injuries. The next step is to prove that your injuries are legitimate. In court, to rightfully claim the financial compensation, you must prove through your damages that you are eligible for that money. Damages are concrete and calculable losses such as medical bills, property damage, and lost income. Damages also include abstract or subjective losses like pain and suffering. 

The difference between the two kinds of damages is that one is concrete, while the other is subjective and rather difficult to calculate. Medical bills are essentially a receipt. So compensating for medical bills is easy. Damages like pain and suffering is a different story. Because there is no receipt or bills to base the compensation on, pain and suffering is very hard to calculate. A car accident lawyer in Miami can help you calculate your damages, especially pain and suffering. There is no actual formula that can 100% accurately give you the cost of pain and suffering. But a car accident lawyer can give you the closest number to what you should be getting. 

What Are The Types Of Damages?

There are 2 types of damages that you can suffer from in a car accident. There are financial and non-financial damages. As the names suggest, financial damages are losses that have a receipt. These are losses like surgeries, therapy, injections, and other medical treatments that have a receipt attached to them. Because these are concrete financial numbers, the court is very likely to compensate you for these damages. But non-financial damages, or general damages, are not specific financially. They are subjective and somewhat depend on the severity of the injury. The medical bills, property damage, lost wages, lost ability to work, future medical costs are all accounted for in the way to getting the calculations for general damages.

Thankfully, in Florida, the courts will grant you financial compensation for pain and suffering even if they are classified as non-specific damages. 

General Damages

• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish and pain
• Lack of enjoyment of life
• Lower quality of life
• Loss of ability to work
• Loss of career
• Loss of companionship (family, friends, lovers)

Special Damages

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Loss of property (valuable items)
• Property damage
• Cost of repairs and replacement of lost or broken items
• Cost of home care and services
• Therapy
• Injections

What Are Losses From Pain and Suffering?

Pain and suffering can result in a plethora of losses. Losses that can result from pain and suffering are anguish, trauma, depression, loss of capability to live, disfigurement, etc. Although these are not actually financially calculable, you can be compensated for having to go through these elements of pain depending on the medical treatment you had to go through.

If your medical treatment looks to be minor and a small inconvenience to your life, your financial compensation for pain and suffering may not be that much. If anything, it may be a small financial amount to compensate.

On the other hand, for a major accident that might leave you bedridden and thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to medical treatment, the financial compensation for that may be significantly more. 

Why Is Special Damages Important To A Car Accident Case In Miami

Special damages are damages that result in losses that have a financial value attached to them. Medical expenses, surgeries, property damage. These are all special damages. But a court case doesn’t just end in special damages. Pain and suffering is almost ALWAYS a factor in a court case. Pain and suffering is why most cases take so long to resolve. 

Since pain and suffering is such an abstract and subjective pain and depends on the individual, the answer and calculation is not clear cut. If cases ended with JUST special damages, it would end very shortly. But since general damages (pain and suffering) are always a factor, cases always take a long time to resolve. 

What Do I Need To Prove My Car Accident Pain and Suffering?

Your car accident pain and suffering can be compensated with proper receipts and bills. Documenting your pain and suffering can be very helpful to your case. In addition, having your friends and family document your pain through writing, video, and photos is helpful as well. Getting a doctor’s recommendation and having that doctor let you know what is wrong with you and document that is also helpful in calculating pain and suffering.

These are all ways to prove that your pain and suffering is real and legitimate. Another way to prove that your pain and suffering has hindered your life is to show proof that you haven’t been able to participate in routine activities in your life. Not being able to go to work, workout, eat, pick up your kids, get out of bed, etc. These are all common daily activities, but you may not be able to do these activities because of your injury. 

Why Are Pain and Suffering Calculators Inaccurate?

On lots of personal injury or car accident websites, you will find a pain and suffering calculator. This calculator is supposed to give you a guesstimate as close as possible to what you might possibly be entitled to when you go to court with your case. However, pain and suffering calculators tend to be very inaccurate and miss the mark.This is because most, if not all, pain and suffering calculators cannot calculate fault. Fault is one of the most important factors to consider when calculating for pain and suffering. There is such a thing called partial liability, in which both parties are held liable. This doesn’t mean that the fault is 50/50 though. There is always someone that is a little more at fault than the other. Partial liability can be something like 80/20, 60/40, even 90/10. These are all possibilities of partial liability. 

Why Is Causation Important For Calculating Pain and Suffering?

Causation is important to consider because of how insurance companies will use this against you. Big insurance companies like Geico, State Farm, and Progressive will try to argue that your injuries were actually pre existing, and thus you are not eligible for financial compensation because your injuries were before the car accident. This is one of the reasons why pain and suffering calculators are not very useful. Without determining liability and causation, you are not getting enough evidence on your side to prove that you are not at fault and that also your injuries were caused by the car accident and not pre-existing.

Do Not Be Misled By Pain and Suffering Calculators

Pain and suffering calculators are inaccurate and sometimes flat out wrong in the end. Don’t be misled by the simple marketing and sales ploy that the calculators offer. The calculators are basically a quick way to give you a number that will make you happy. Don’t fall for such a simple tactic. Personal injury and car accident injuries are not that simple to calculate that you can just put it in a survey and get a number. Injuries can LOOK similar on the surface, but can have wildly different financial value. A broken arm to one person may be a month or two with a cast, but to another person it could be one or two months of being with a cast and also therapy, injections, and other factors of pain and suffering. 

How Much Are Different Injuries Worth?

Different injuries have different prices. Depending on the severity and location of the injury, it may be worth different. 

• A broken or fractured hand/wrist can range from $35,000 to $70,000.
• Without surgery, an elbow fracture can be valued at $40,000 to $50,000.
• But, that same elbow fracture WITH surgery can be worth something in the range of $150,000 to $250,000.
• A torn meniscus can be worth $20,000 to $30,000.
• That same torn meniscus can be worth $40,000 to $80,0000 if it has surgery performed on it because of the accident.
• A torn labrum or rotator cuff with no surgery can be worth something between $40,000-$75,000.
• But, that exact same torn labrum or rotator cuff can be worth $100,000 to $175,000 if surgery is performed on it.
• A disk or a herniated disk can cost from $10,000 to $50,000. 
• However, surgery on that disk can be worth in between the range of $250,000 to $350,000. 

As you can see, severe injuries and different body parts can result in different settlement amounts. Bigger body parts that are more crucial (such as your lower back and legs vs your arms) and also require a more intricate surgery, which is why they cost more for settlement amounts. 

Consult In a Lawyer, Even If It’s Not Their Field

If you already know a lawyer, it is a good idea to ask them for tips on how to find a lawyer near you. Although they may not be a car accident lawyer, they are still in the field of law. They may know a car accident lawyer and give you a recommendation. Especially if this is a lawyer you have worked with extensively, they will probably know your habits and the way you are. For example, maybe you only know a lawyer that takes care of worker’s comp and not car accidents. But these fields are intertwined and asking your lawyer for recommendations on a car accident lawyer can lead you to possibly another expert in that field that can help you. 

Take Out The Middleman

If you want to truly take action into your own hands, go and look for a car accident lawyer on Google and be diligent with your search. This is the best way to get the result you want for your car accident. 

Because of Google and modern day search engines, it is so easy to find a car accident lawyer in Miami. A quick search with the words “car accident lawyer near me” will give you all the car accident lawyers near your area. The next step is to check their Google reviews. Do they follow up? Do they reply to their Google reviews? Are the reviews generally good? These are all questions to consider when you are going through the Google My Business (GMB) of any law firm. 

After checking out the GMB of the law firm, the website is next. Make sure that their website is aligned with their GMB and that the address and telephone number is correct. Read a few blog posts of their website. See what the website is about and see if the content is good. How does the lawyer look? Does the lawyer look personable? Is the content good?

If the lawyer checks out all your boxes and you feel comfortable with what you see online, call them and get an appointment. From there, the ball is in your court. 

Finding a Car Accident Lawyer in Miami Near Me

Looking for a personal injury lawyer in Miami can be a hassle. It can take up a large part of your time even when you’re going through the injuries. Look no further for a car accident lawyer in Miami. 

Our team of lawyers in Miami can give you the legal guidance you may need to deal with the injuries that you sustained. From something as minor as cuts and bruises to even the most devastating losses like wrongful death in Miami, any sort of loss sustained during a Miami car accident can be stressful to recover from. Losses that get too severe can result in bigger financial losses because of the inability to work or your loss of employment status (because you were gone for too long).
Don’t be alone when dealing with personal injuries as a result of a car accident in Miami. Call a Miami car accident lawyer and get a free consultation regarding your injuries. Jimmy De La Espriella will not only provide legal guidance for your car accident injuries, he and the rest of our lawyers will always be available to talk to for other questions and concerns regarding your injury. We are here for you and your health is our number one priority. 

We are a “no win no fee” law firm. If we don’t win, then you don’t get charged anything, all fees are on us until we win you your case.