How Can I Prove Pain and Suffering In a Florida Personal Injury Case?

When it comes to proving your expenses, that seems like a relatively straightforward task. Your bills speak for themselves—present them and a jury knows what to award if they do find the Defendant negligent. The same goes for lost wages—even wages going into the future can be calculated with some math.

But how does a jury calculate damages for pain, suffering, anxiety, and other types of damages that can’t be calculated? Of course, a jury can award you money for these things, but how do you show the jury what these types of injuries are worth when they don’t have a “value” the way lost wages or expenses or bills might have?

Showing the Jury the Evidence

One of the biggest tasks is making the jury understand what you have been living through—what it’s like to be you with your injuries and the differences in your life from before and after the accident.

Of course, your medical records can tell some of the story. Records that reflect pain, anxiety, difficulties, setbacks, procedures, and limitations all can go a long way in helping a jury understand what your life has been like because of your injuries.

This is one reason why going to the doctor matters so much—your doctors’ records will tell the story of your injuries and difficulties. Additionally, if your doctors testify on your behalf, as they may be called on to do, they will often rely on your records to recall your treatment and what you have gone through.

Your doctor will rely on his or her experience with thousands of patients to relay to the jury how painful your particular injury can be.

Your Testimony is Important

This is also where your testimony comes into play.

Your testimony is the most important part of your damages. Certainly, you are not a neutral witness, but that’s OK. The jury still can be moved by your retelling of how your injuries, pain, suffering or anxiety, have affected your day to day life and your relationships with others. Your personal injury attorney will work with you in showing you how to best convey to a jury what you have been going through.

Your testimony can be matched with testimony from friends and family who can relay to a jury what their observations are of you. They may tell a jury that you are less social, more irritable, or not able to do the things you could one do in the past.

Remember that you can get an award not just for the injury, but for the events that surround the injury—for example, for the pain in the healing process, the physical therapy, or side effects from medications that you have to take because of your injury.

Call the Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys at Rosen Injury Law for help if you are injured in any kind of accident. Contact us today with your questions.

Source:

facs.org/advocacy/federal/liability/guide-to-liability-reform/ending-the-confusion#:~:text=Non%2Deconomic%20damages%20refers%20to,loss%20of%20enjoyment%20of%20life