When you or a loved one have suffered from a personal injury due to someone else’s actions, you are legally entitled to hold them accountable. Bringing a suit on your behalf works in two ways: first, it aims to financially compensate you for the ways that this accident has impacted your life, and second, it works to prevent the responsible party from harming another individual. The financial damages you can receive aim to cover the cost of medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering. While some costs are easily calculable, recovering for pain and suffering can be a little more complicated to calculate.
Physical & Emotional Damages
After an injury, you are likely to experience emotional and physical pain and suffering. Physical pain and suffering refers to the actual injury and the effects that it will have on your life in the future. Emotional pain and suffering refers to the emotional impact an injury can have, including fear of the activity that led to the injury, or the loss of enjoyment of other activities as a direct result, both now and into the future.
Examples of emotional pain and suffering includes:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Anger
- Loss of appetite
- Depression
- Mood swings
- Sexual dysfunction
- Loss of energy
- Sleep disturbances
While some states have caps on the financial amount of pain and suffering damages that someone may be eligible to receive, Illinois does not have these kinds of caps. That means that the judge and jury overseeing a personal injury case have the ability to encourage any amount of financial award for pain and suffering based on any number of factors.
Suffering a personal injury is a very serious matter that needs to be considered by the courts. Considering the immense impact that being injured can have on anyone’s life, it is crucial that all steps are taken to reduce the overall effect that it has on your life. Consider hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer to help recover the compensation you deserve.
Have you been harmed? Speak with a lawyer at the Chicago-based Duncan Law Group. We offer free consultations to get you started!
