Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Fair pain and suffering amount?
Hey All--
I was in a car accident about two months ago and the other driver's (their fault) insurance finally got their act together and admitted fault (long story).
Anyway, I was mildly injured in the accident and am at a bit of a lost as to how much pain and suffering I should request. Of course I realize most of you are not attorneys and am not looking for that kind of advice, but just wanted general feedback and opinions because I have never been in this situation before.
Basically, my injuries were strained muscles in my neck/shoulders and a burn on my hand from the air bag being deployed. I didn't go to the hospital on the day of, but did see a doctor a few days later. I felt mostly fine the day of (except the burn), but woke up the next day with every muscle in my body aching and in pain. The day after was much better, though I still had some pain and was very achy for about one week. After the first week, I had occassional pain twinges up my arm for 6 weeks, gone now) but my shoulders and neck remained achy for about 5 weeks. One injury that appears to be permanent is a nickel-sized discoloration on my hand from the burn. I thought that discoloration would go away once the skin had healed, but the skin is healed and smooth now and the discoloration didn't go away. I had two half days and one full day off from work from my injuries.
My totaled car, medical bills, and first week of rental car were covered by my insurance (they are recovering all that back from the other ins.). The other items I am requesting reimbursement for are my deductible, sick time, the half day from work to register my new car, part of the sales tax for new car, and loss of use of my car (2nd week of rental I needed).
My thoughts were $3,000 for the pain and sufferng portion, which I arrived at from taking my sick time off work and my medical bills and multiplying them by three...a calculation I found online as a general guideline...plus another $900 for the scar. I'll be the first to admit I'm normally pretty side-eyed about pain and suffering claims and so I want to be fair about it. And I realize I'm VERY lucky to have escaped not having more major or longer term injuries but, at the end of the day, I did have pain for a week and I definitely suffered...even if it wasn't extreme...for an extended period of time.
Re: Fair pain and suffering amount?
Of course I'm very much not a lawyer, but I think what you are thinking about sounds fair to slightly low for my area. I consulted a lawyer friend before my negotiation (he was kind not to charge, though I'd offer to pay) and I'd recommend doing the same. They will lowball you; many lawyers recommend politely negotiating. I'm glad I did; like you, I don't want to abuse the system but I had to miss class, work, and study time so some compensation was fair.
Good luck!
Thanks for the input. And you're right, I wouldn't classify it as "serious impairment of bodily function" either (thank goodness!). I'm not in a no-fault state. I thought about hiring an attorney, but it just seems like overkill. My entire damages I would want to recover (not including what my insurance already paid to me), including the pain and suffering, is under $5,000.
I did collect a few hundred bucks pain and suffering from another auto accident years ago (same state as now), but there were no lawyers or court involved. It was something the other insurance offered to me, I hadn't even asked, and I just accepted. In that instance, I was even less injured. Saw a doctor once, was sore for a couple days, and only missed a couple hours work when I went to the doctor's.
In my perfect world, I'd present all my damages to the other company. They find the amount reasonable and accept or counter back with an offer that at least gets close. And we can all call it day without too much fuss or muss. Unfortunately, especially considering how difficult they have been so far without money even being discussed yet. I find that scenario very unlikely!
Thanks for sharing your story, Xstatic3333.
It was a weird situation where the at-fault, out of town driver had a rental car. She bought the rental insurance (Hertz), but said she also had AAA insurance for her vehicle at home. Supposedly the 57-day delay regarding the outcome was Hertz saying, "No, no, we're not the primary carrier. AAA is." Oh, but wait, she really didn't have insurance through AAA. And...it took everyone (including my adjuster) two months to figure that out? Ummm...yeah (rolling eyes).
I think what you are doing is fine.
Thanks for all the responses and feedback, everyone.
I especially appreciate the long response from you, hoffse. I can see this is an issue you are very passionate about. I found it very informative and interesting to see your point of view, especially from someone in the legal profession.
Though I admit I still see it somewhere in between. I see reasonable pain and suffering as compared to the injuries suffered as part of making the injured party whole. For example, the day after my accident was a Saturday. I don't work on Saturdays so I didn't lose any actual income, but I was totally out of commission because I could barely move. And of course it wasn't just the Saturday, that was just the worst day. From my point of view, reimbursing just all my out of pocket expenses doesn't make me whole because it doesn't take into account the loss of quality of life (for lack of a more mild term).
On the other side of the coin, we have all heard of monetary awards that just sound like crazy, egregious amounts as compared to what happened and I definitely find that to be an abuse of the system. I could see where, even in a civil suit, for punitive damages should be awarded. But I see that being more if the defendant was behaving in a malicious manner, which is rarely the case for a car accident.