If you are injured in an accident, whether it’s an automobile accident, slip-and-fall, workplace accident, or the result of a defective product, you can file a lawsuit for all of the damages you have incurred. Under Pennsylvania law, when injury is the result of someone else’s negligence, a jury will be instructed that you deserve to be compensated for both past and future:
- pain and suffering
- embarrassment and humiliation
- loss of ability to enjoy the pleasures of life, and
- disfigurement
(231 Pa. Code Rule 223.3)
These are called “non-economic” damages. You are also due any financial losses you have incurred, such as past wage loss, future diminished earning capacity, past medical bills, future medical costs, and any household expenses your injuries have forced you to incur. These economic losses will be covered separately.
When focusing on “non-economic” damages, your attorney should explore and plan several different alternatives to illustrate for the jury the true extent of your pain and suffering and other damages. You can submit photos or home videos to your attorney that show how your daily life has been impacted by your injuries. Your attorney can also hire a company to make what is called a “day in the life” video to be presented to the jury at trial which shows the true extent of your injuries and how they impact your everyday living.
You and friends or family members can be prepared to testify at trial as to the pain, embarrassment, and/or loss of life’s pleasures that you have suffered. It is vitally important that the jury see, as much as is possible, and can fully understand, in detail, all the ways that your injuries have affected you.
While your lawyer is prohibited from making a specific dollar amount request for these non-economic damages, a jury can normally be trusted to come up with the appropriate value of your damages, if they are presented with a compelling presentation on the breadth and scope of all of the different ways you have suffered from your injuries.
There are times, particularly when a client has passed away, that an attorney must present expert testimony on the pain and suffering that a client experienced when they were alive (See Cominsky v. Donovan, 846 A.2d 1256 (2004)). The courts have determined that lay testimony cannot establish evidence of pain and suffering, where the lay testimony goes beyond what is readily observable by the naked eye, and requires some sort of expert medical testing or analysis. In such cases, an attorney must hire a medical expert, in the appropriate field of medicine, to review the plaintiff’s medical records and write a report, and be prepared to testify, as to the full extent of pain and suffering the plaintiff experienced, due to his injuries, before his death.
Every injury case, where the injuries were caused by the negligence of someone else, has value. But you cannot receive the full value you deserve, for all that you have had to endure as the result of someone else’s negligence, if you do not present a strong, complete and convincing case to the jury of the full extent of your non-economic damages.
These cases can often be complex, but a plaintiff can benefit from the help of an experienced Pennsylvania personal injury law firm. We would welcome an opportunity to discuss the details of your case, and there is no fee for a consultation. Please contact us to arrange a convenient time to meet. We are here for you.