The short answer is no. Pain and suffering and medical bills are considered different types of damages. But that doesn’t mean medical bills aren’t included in the overall picture. When you go to speak with an attorney after a car accident, they will ask about your “damages.” Damages are the loss or injury caused by the negligence, design, or accident of one person to another person’s body or property.
It is important to have an idea of the different types of damages so you understand how an attorney looks at your claim. In California, damages are broken down into 3 main types.
What are the types of damages in California?
Special Damages. Special Damages are the loss a victim has incurred directly from the car accident. You may hear attorneys refer to these as “specials.” These are essentially your out of pocket costs, bills, or invoices that you’ve paid or have to pay. This includes any past and future medical expenses or treatments, surgeries, medications, past and future wage loss, and property damage to your vehicle or other property.
These are easier to calculate because they are a hard cost. For example, if you were in a car accident and you had a $50,000 surgery, $5,000 in physical therapy, $10,000 in lost wages from missed work due to the accident, and damage to your car of $5,000, your special damages would be $70,000 (ex: $50,000 + $5,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 = $70,000).
If your injury was more serious and requires future medical care or lost wages, those numbers will be included here too. Expert witnesses will need to be hired to help calculate these amounts.
General Damages General Damages are those that come from the actual pain and trauma of a car accident. Pain and suffering is the most common type of general damage. But this also includes disfigurement, emotional and psychological trauma, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and lost companionship.
There are several things taken into consideration to determine general damages. The amount and duration of pain; how it’s affected the victim’s daily life; stress and worry over the injury; and details about the negligence or recklessness that caused the injuries.
Determining this amount is subjective and unique to each individual and is difficult to put a number on. There is no scientific formula to determine the amount of pain one suffers versus another. One way attorneys calculate pain and suffering is the 1-3x multiplier. Depending on how serious the injuries are will determine which multiplier is used.
Punitive Damages. Punitive Damages are meant to be a punishment to the defendant. They are meant to deter them from acting in the same way in the future and not as compensation for the victim’s losses. In most car accident cases punitive damages aren’t available unless there is gross negligence, intent to harm, or drunk driving. An award of punitive damages requires the victim to show the defendant engaged in malice, oppression, or fraud.
So while pain and suffering are both damages in a car accident context, they fall into separate categories. If you have questions about your damages or would like your case evaluated for free, we would be happy to take a look through your medical bills and records, paystubs, and property damage estimates to help determine your options.
