What Is the Difference Between Insurance and Courts’ Calculation of Pain and Suffering?

South Carolina courts and local insurance companies often use different methods to calculate pain and suffering, though the overall amount may be similar or identical. Even so, non-economic damages like pain and suffering can be trickier to estimate than economic damages like medical bills or property damage.

Keep reading to learn what pain and suffering damages are as well as what a court and an insurance company may consider when calculating your compensation. And if you’ve been injured, please get in contact with a Darlington County personal injury lawyer today. You deserve an experienced and knowledgeable attorney to fight by your side.

What Are Non-Economic Damages?

Pain and suffering fall under the category of non-economic damages. While “pain” here means physical distress after an accident, “suffering” means the psychological consequences of your injury. Depression, anxiety, and other internal reactions naturally occur after life-altering accidents, lasting a brief or a longer time. These kinds of damages exist to compensate you for the emotional, mental, or physical distress you experience as a result of your injury. (As you might imagine, insurance companies typically try to get out of paying for intangible losses.)

To qualify for pain and suffering damages, you will have to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that your situation qualifies for financial compensation. Putting a dollar number on something like loss of quality of life can be difficult, so this blog article will explain the different ways insurance companies and courts approach this issue.

How Do South Carolina Courts Calculate Pain and Suffering?

Courts in South Carolina will consider several factors before deciding on your compensation. As the judge and jury analyze your financial situation, they’ll look at your age, the severity of your physical injuries, how urgent your need for medical attention is, what your health condition was before the accident, how long doctors estimate your recovery will take, and how the consequences of the accident make doing your daily activities and spending time with your family more difficult.

None of these factors is more important than any other factors. You are allowed to present medical records, expert witnesses, and lay witnesses to attest to these factors in your case.

How Do South Carolina Courts Calculate Pain and Suffering?

Insurance companies, on the other hand, use one of two methods to determine your compensation for pain and damages. These are the multiplier method and the per diem method.

For the multiplier method, your financial losses are added together and then multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5, depending on the circumstances of your case. The per diem method works by giving a dollar amount for every day of your pain and suffering and multiplying by how many days you experienced your pain and suffering.