Here are some tips for negotiating fair compensation for your pain and suffering after a slip and fall accident.
After negotiating your economic losses with the insurance company, the next step is pursuing fair compensation for the pain and suffering caused by your slip and fall injuries.
Economic damages are monetary losses like medical bills and lost wages. These are measurable expenses, backed up by invoices, receipts, and income statements. Non-economic damages, better known as pain and suffering, are trickier because there are no objective ways to measure emotional distress after a slip and fall.
Here are some helpful tips for negotiating the pain and suffering portion of your insurance settlement.
Tip 1: Know What Counts as Pain and Suffering
Technically, “pain and suffering damages” describes the physical pain and emotional distress you had to endure because of the injuries you suffered from a slip and fall accident.
However, pain and suffering has become somewhat of a blanket term for general types of damages, meaning ways you were harmed by the injuries that aren’t measured by a bill or receipt.
Pain and suffering can include:
- Emotional suffering: Like the distress at not being able to pick up your toddler during recovery
- Humiliation and embarrassment: Such as feeling shame for needing help using the toilet because of your injuries
- Psychological distress: Like an intense fear of falling again, bad dreams, or anxiety
Your pain and suffering claim should be proportionate to your physical injuries. Otherwise, the claims adjuster might question the validity of your entire claim.
Tip 2: Don’t Expect a Windfall
When you’re negotiating your own slip and fall claim, be realistic about the dollar value of pain from soft-tissue injuries.
If you were lucky enough to walk away from a slip and fall accident with only some bruising and a few days of sore muscles, the adjuster will likely pay only a little more than your total economic losses.
You may be able to persuade the adjuster to pay more if you can clearly explain the hardship and distress your injury and medical treatment caused, and back it up with evidence.
Personal injury claim values are often calculated by adding up your economic damages, then adding one or two times that amount for pain and suffering.
Only serious injury claims, handled by an experienced slip and fall lawyer, will get a pain and suffering award as high as five or six times the total expenses. With permanent injuries, the multiplier can be even higher.
Tip 3: Use Vivid Language to Describe the Fall
You can paint a vivid picture of your pain and suffering caused by the fall without exaggerating the nature of your injuries. Use descriptive language to describe how falling affected you from the moment it happened.
You may have experienced:
- Terror at falling down the stairs
- Humiliation at finding yourself on the ground, surrounded by strangers
- Fear for the safety of children who were in your care when you were injured
- Agony from the pain of being slammed onto a hard surface
Don’t leave anything out, even your frustration and embarrassment of needing to use the bathroom when you couldn’t get up off the floor because of the pain.
Tip 4: Emphasize Restrictions Arising from Your Injuries
Use descriptive language to explain to the adjuster exactly how the pain from your injuries and the limitations ordered by your doctor impacted your daily life.
Even a sprained wrist or ankle can cause considerable pain, distress, and limit your activities of daily living. Injury-related limitations may have disrupted your life for several days or weeks.
Your limitations might include:
- Sleeping in a recliner because it hurt to lay flat
- Nausea, constipation, and other side effects of medication
- Inability to prepare meals
- Inability to care for young children
- The discomfort of using crutches
- Requiring help with bathing and other personal care
- Inability to engage in intimacy with your partner (loss of consortium)
Remind the adjuster that you and your family members would not have suffered in these ways if it weren’t for the negligence of their insured.
Tip 5: Provide Evidence of Your Pain and Suffering
Insurance adjusters aren’t impressed by soft-tissue injuries like bruises and sprains. They always suspect the claimant is exaggerating their pain and suffering.
It’s not enough to tell the adjuster you were sore and upset for several days following your slip and fall. You must back up your claim with evidence.
Evidence of your pain and suffering might include:
- Notes in your medical records detailing your pain and limited range of motion
- Doctor’s orders restricting you from lifting more than ten pounds, or standing for more than a few minutes
- An injury journal, with dated entries about your pain levels, inability to sleep, and other limitations you endured
- Witness statements describing the violence of your fall, and your pain and distress at the accident scene
- A calendar of activities you missed because of your injuries
Tip 6: Mention Future Medical Needs
Even soft tissue injuries take time to heal fully. Joint strains and sprains can remain stiff and sore for a long time. Let the adjuster know if your doctor has said it could “take months to get back to normal.”
Explain to the adjuster your worries about having to be extra careful since the injury, and your concerns about future pain and medical expenses. Mention that your doctor told you to come back for more tests if the injured area continues to bother you.
It’s okay to let the adjuster know you don’t like having to live with anxiety about your health and mobility, through no fault of your own.
Tip 7: Look at the Big Picture
If you’ve talked the adjuster into paying all your economic damages for a minor injury, you’ve passed the first hurdle in the claims negotiation process. Your discussions might get bogged down when you start negotiating the amount of compensation for pain and suffering.
While you have other options for pursuing injury compensation if negotiations fail, don’t be too quick to end settlement negotiations. Make an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your case.
Factors that limit a personal injury settlement include:
- Indications of “shared fault” like using your cell phone or running after a toddler when you fell
- Preexisting conditions that might contribute to your pain and recovery time
- Refusing to let paramedics take you to the emergency room
- Lack of credible evidence to support your claim
- Social media posts or pictures that contradict your pain and suffering claim
Even when there’s no question of the property owner’s liability, and you didn’t contribute to causing your slip and fall, you should still think twice before refusing to settle your claim.
Depending on the amount of money at issue, keep in mind:
- The insurance adjuster is not obligated to pay anything for pain and suffering
- Lawsuits and alternative dispute resolution can be expensive
- You might not end up with more money from a lawsuit
Stay calm and don’t lose patience while negotiating with the adjuster. Reaching a fair settlement requires compromise on both sides.
Tip 8: Talk to an Attorney About Your Claim
When you’re not sure how much you should compromise on a settlement amount, or you’re having second thoughts about the strength of your claim, it’s time to consult a personal injury attorney.
You can talk to a slip and fall attorney at any point during claim negotiations. It never hurts to get a professional perspective on the value of your claim and all your legal options.
It’s amazing how often an adjuster will suddenly raise their offer to settle a personal injury case once an experienced attorney gets involved.
Most law firms offer free consultations to slip and fall victims. Personal injury lawyers typically work on a contingency fee basis, meaning they only get paid if they settle your case or win a personal injury lawsuit in court.
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