Herron Law LLC, a leading personal injury lawyer Portland, offers the following advice and tips about pain and suffering compensation for your car accident claim or lawsuit:

Average Settlement Amount for Car Accident Pain and Suffering

Every car accident settlement is different. Factors that affect what your settlement will include how severe your injuries are, types of medical treatments, length of your recovery time, and long-term effects of your injuries.

However, our personal experience shows that the most common payout for pain and suffering in most car accident claims is under $15,000. The reason for this is MOST car accident claims involve minor injuries. The severity of your injury is a big factor in your pain and suffering damages.

Most of our car accident settlements that involve $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000 or more of pain and suffering compensation involve severe injuries, hospital stays, and surgery.

Also, many settlements tend to be for less than $15,000 for pain and suffering because the available insurance is simply not enough for a larger settlement.

Demand Letters and Pain and Suffering Compensation: You do not have to send a demand letter to the insurance company to get compensation for pain and suffering. But sending the letter shows you are intelligent and organized, which helps your case.

You do not need to ask the insurance firm for an exact amount of pain and suffering. We often think that not asking for an exact amount is better for negotiations. The reason is that if you ask for a certain amount, it is possible the defendant can use the demand as a reason to go to federal court. Big companies, such as Walmart, often like to take personal injury cases to federal court.

They do this because they think it is more likely a federal court will dismiss the case.

First Offers from the Insurance Company: Most opening offers for pain and suffering and other damages will not be reasonable. An exception is if the case is worth the amount of insurance policy limits, or more.

It is highly likely your offers from the insurance company for your pain and suffering will be unreasonable if you do not have an attorney. Most adjusters know that people without lawyers are terrible at negotiations. This is nothing to be ashamed of; most people simply lack the many years of experience personal injury lawyers have to negotiate with stingy insurance companies.

It is possible for you to leave tens of thousands of dollars or more of pain and suffering compensation on the table if you do not have an attorney. We know this is true because clients will tell us sometimes the amount they were going to ask from the insurance company. In a serious injury case, the number is usually far too low.

We have read of cases where the client was going to ask for $30,000 and the lawyer involved got a settlement of $300,000.

Proving Pain and Suffering: The biggest proof you have is your medical bills and records. Also, if you have highly visible injuries, such as a cut, photos are great to illustrate pain and suffering. Videos showing your surgery are good. Cases where the doctor must put hardware in a joint also are good for proving pain and suffering.

Also, at every doctor’s visit, your physician will ask about your level of pain. It will be in every medical record about your accident. Don’t try to outsmart the insurance adjuster by saying your pain was a 9 and you told the doctor it was a 1.

Injuries That Get Pain and Suffering Money: Many severe injuries get ample compensation for pain and suffering, but some of the most common are broken bones, scarring, back injuries involving surgery, joint injuries involving surgery, and whiplash.

Whiplash can be harder to prove, but if your doctor confirms that you have whiplash and have pain and suffering, you can get a lot of money for this injury.

Herron Law LLC, an experienced personal injury lawyer Portland, is here to help you if you have questions about your car accident case. Please contact The Herron Law Firm at (503) 699-6496 for more information.