How much do people have to suffer before it becomes an injury? This is the seemingly impossible question you have to answer when you are negotiating a car accident injury claim.
The claimant’s side would probably argue that any increased stress, pain or discomfort is an injury. While you typically do not see much argument on this point from insurance companies, they do tend to argue about how much, exactly, those injuries should represent in terms of a dollar amount.
Are pain and suffering real losses?
According to Psychology Today, your psychological and emotional damage could potentially be extreme after a car accident. You might feel as though you are drowning in a sea of pain, to quote the article. You would not be alone.
Millions of people suffer from these types of losses every year. Legally speaking, you would put these under the category of non-economic damages.
What are non-economic damages?
There are two general classifications of losses in personal injury lawsuits. On one hand, you have economic damages. These are easy to parse in most situations: physical damage to vehicles, medical bills, time you lose off of work and various other losses with a pre-existing dollar amount.
On the other hand, you might have some non-economic damages. A classic example of this would be your pain. In this category, the challenge is usually to show your subjective truth in a detached, objective way.
This is a complex area of law, and you usually have to work to get what you truly deserve. However, with a strong scientific basis and a comprehensive view of your suffering, you could be able to enlist the court’s assistance in your psychological and emotional recovery.
