SHOULD I BE COMPENSATED FOR MY PAIN AND SUFFERING?

If you’ve been involved in a car accident, one of the elements of recovery to which you are entitled to, in addition to your medical bills, in addition to your lost wages, would be a component for pain and suffering. That’s a phrase that Ohio uses to represent all of the intangible elements of injuries and damages from a car accident. So it involves the pain from the injuries. It involves the inconvenience and annoyance from the injury. It involves the worry from an injury. So it’s hard to answer the question what is my pain and suffering worth as a general rule because obviously the more serious the injuries, the more permanent the injury the more involved and debilitating the injury, the higher the value of pain and suffering. Just today I got in a conversation with somebody and they said I’ve heard that pain and suffering should be 3 times the amount of my medical bills. I can assure you that while I’ve heard that type of ratio, that ratio and that type of analysis is wrong headed and a complete mistake. I’ve had cases where people were seen in an emergency room and their bill was enormous $30-40,000 but their injury was fairly insignificant . That might be a case where 3 times the medical bills is too much pain and suffering. But I’ve also been involved with people who were horrifically injured, but unfortunately there was a very limited amount of treatment that the medical community could provide. In that case, 40-50 times the medical bills may be insufficient so there is absolutely no ratio. Each case rests on its own merits to decide what the effective and correct amount of pain and suffering is on any given case.