Tossing And Turning Over Your Accident

A car accident can affect your life in surprising ways. One important thing to keep in mind is that if the other driver was at fault for the accident, you are very likely entitled to be paid money damages for nearly all of those ways. Pain and suffering is a misunderstood facet of many car accident cases, and the money damages from this category sometimes make up the greatest share of the compensation owed to victims. Read on to find out more about not just pain and suffering but also one example of that category: sleep disturbances.

Denied Your Restorative Sleep

Everyone recognizes the need to get plenty of sleep, and even under the best of circumstances, many don't do a good job of getting sufficient sleep. Car accidents and other traumatic events, though, can create a general disruption of a person's mental faculties, and that includes the ability to get a good night's sleep. Mental issues can begin to pop up or worsen after an accident. That might include anxiety, nightmares, depression, and more.

In addition, dealing with the physical injuries from the accident can create problems with sleep. If you are in pain from the wreck, you are not likely to sleep well. Once you are no longer getting enough sleep, you might find your day-to-day life negatively affected as well. This is the very definition of pain and suffering. You might be curious as to how you can be paid for this loss, so below is a short explanation of the way it might be calculated.

Turing Pain And Suffering Into Money Damages

In a car accident settlement or judgment, the money a victim may be owed is divided into two categories. Economic damages comprise those that are associated with a specific dollar amount of loss. Some common economic damages include medical expenses, lost wages, auto repair, and so on. On the other end of the spectrum are noneconomic damages. Those are mostly composed of pain and suffering, loss of consortium, psychological trauma, and a few other things. While the way pain and suffering and other noneconomic damages are calculated can vary, here are two commonly used methods.

1. The multiplier method – This method uses the dollar amount of your medical expenses as the starting point and multiplies that by a factor. Higher factors are associated with more severe injuries.
2. The daily rate method – Here, each day you are affected by the accident is assigned a dollar sum. For instance, you might be assigned a rate of $200/day.

Keep in mind that all of the above is entirely negotiable between you, your attorney, and the at-fault driver's insurance company. It's in your best interest to speak to an auto accident attorney as soon as possible after the accident to ensure you are paid what you deserve.