If you have been injured in an accident, you are likely to be dealing with an enormous amount of pain. You are probably running around to medical appointments and have lost hours away from work. In addition to all of this, you will have to deal with collecting evidence for your insurance claim. You may be wondering how an insurance company determines how much money you will get for injuries, property damage, and pain and suffering.
If the insurance company does what it is supposed to do, you should get enough money to cover your medical bills, and you should recuperate any lost wages from work that you have missed. If you were injured in a car accident, you should also be reimbursed for your vehicle.
You have probably heard that you can recover money for pain and suffering if you have been in a car accident. Pain and suffering is a legal term that simply means any non-monetary damage that you have experienced.
Damages for pain and suffering are not awarded in every personal injury case. Injuries must generally be very severe in order to obtain compensation. Ordinarily, you will have to suffer the loss of function in one of your body parts, such as the loss of sight or paralysis. If you have been permanently scarred or if you suffered from a bone fracture, you may also be able to get compensated. There is no set amount of money awarded for pain and suffering. There are two basic methods insurance adjusters used to determine how much money you should get.
The Per Diem Method
Per Diem means per day. When trying to determine the appropriate amount of money to give someone for pain and suffering, an insurance company might try to determine how much money their time is worth. They will often try to figure out how much money a person makes per day. They will then multiply that amount of money by the number of days that the person took to recover from their accident.
According to Murray & Murray, LLC, an insurer will often use your salary to determine how much your time is worth. If you make $20 a day and it took you 20 days to recover, you would be compensated for $4,000.
The Multiplier Method
An insurance adjuster may also use the amount of your medical bills to determine what you should get for your pain and suffering. An insurance company will use various facts about your case to determine your level of pain on a scale of 1.5 to 5. The multiplier method takes the total amount of your doctor bills and multiplies it by your level of pain.
Let's say your level of pain was a three, and your doctor's bills totaled $5,000. You would be compensated $15,000 for pain and suffering.
There may be several other ways that an insurance company will decide how much to offer you when you've had an accident. They are notoriously tight-fisted, and chances are you will need a personal injury attorney to get you the money you deserve.
Having an accident can be painful and time-consuming. Knowing a bit about how insurance companies work and determine settlement amounts can help you decide if you are being offered the proper amount of compensation.
