Most people are aware that you are eligible to collect compensation in a personal injury lawsuit for medical expenses and lost wages, but you may be eligible for other forms of compensation. One compensation type that many people have heard of but few understand well is compensation for pain and suffering. It’s easy to prove that you’ve incurred medical bills or that your wages have been impacted by a personal injury accident, but how do you go about proving pain and suffering? In today’s blog, we explain what you need to do if you’re hoping to win an award for pain and suffering.
Pain And Suffering Damages
Damages for pain and suffering come in two different forms. There’s physical pain and suffering, like being unable to go cycling or walk around the block with your dog anymore, and there’s the mental form, which can manifest in the form of anxiety, PTSD or other forms of emotional distress, like if you were bitten by a dog and now you become anxious every time you encounter a dog. You can recover compensation for both physical and mental pain and suffering following a personal injury lawsuit, but how exactly do you prove that you are suffering from these issues?
First and foremost, you’ll need to undergo an evaluation by a licensed physician who can document your health issues. Not only must these issues be diagnosed by a doctor, but your treating physician must determine that your personal injury accident was the reason for their manifestation. In other words, you must:
- Undergo an independent medical exam
- Be diagnosed with compensable injuries tied to pain and suffering
- Receive confirmation that your diagnosis is a direct result of the personal injury accident
However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. Even if you prove all of the above elements, there’s no guarantee that you will be eligible to collect damages for pain and suffering. You also need to prove that someone else holds the primary liability for your injuries.
Before you can collect damages for pain and suffering, you must first prove that you have a valid injury claim, and that involves showcasing that someone else’s action or inaction was the primary reason you incurred injuries. You’ll need to prove negligence, and the four elements needed to prove negligence as it pertains to a personal injury lawsuit in Minnesota are:
- The other party had a duty of care to others.
- The other party breached this duty of care.
- This breach of duty of care led to harm.
- You suffered compensable injuries as a result of this breach of care.
Sometimes proving negligence is easy, like if you get rear ended at a stoplight by a driver who was on their phone, but other times fault is hard to prove. Moreover, Minnesota has a comparative fault system, which means the injured party may bear some responsibility for their injuries, but they can still seek pro-rated damages so long as they do not hold the majority of the fault. For example, a court may rule that a walker who was distracted by their phone bears some responsibility for their injuries if they slipped on a patch of ice that wasn’t removed in a timely manner by a homeowner. If the court ruled that the walker was at 30% fault, they could still seek damages for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering, but their payout would be capped at 70% of the true amount because of the comparative fault rule.
There are a number of things you’ll need to prove if you hope to win a personal injury claim that includes damages for pain and suffering, and the easiest way to give yourself the best chance to win an award is by hiring an experienced legal team. Dean and the team at Margolis Law Firm have helped countless individuals get the compensation they deserve after an injury, and we can do the same for you. For more information, or for help with a different type of injury claim, reach out to Dean and the team at Margolis Law Firm today at (952) 230-2700.
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