Non-economic damages in a personal injury settlement refers to those damages that aren't based on actual financial losses you incurred. For example, unlike medical bills and lost income- which you have concrete proof of and can add up on your calculator- non-economic damages include things like your pain and suffering and your emotional distress. It can be very difficult to determine exactly how much pain or suffering is worth, and there is no clear personal injury settlement calculator that will give you one number figure for how much these non-economic damages are worth.
However, there may be ways to estimate the amount of non-economic damages you are likely to receive.
- One way would be to use a pain multiplier. This is a tactic commonly used by insurance companies which involves taking your actual damages (those for medical bills and lost wages) and multiplying them by a set number (which is usually between 1.5 and 5). The number arrived at may be their offer of non-economic damages
- You can also look back at past court cases of people with similar injuries in order to see what the jury has awarded them. Of course, this is an inexact and unreliable measure since juries don't divide their damage awards up by category and it would probably be hard to know exactly how much of the settlement is attributed to pain and suffering or other non-economic damages. Further, every case is different.
Since there is no exact figure that is used to determine the appropriate amount of non-economic damages, it is always in your best interests to consult with a lawyer when negotiating a personal injury settlement.
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