How to Document Pain and Suffering for Your Case (2023-24)

When you or a loved one suffers an injury from an accident or medical malpractice, the physical and mental costs can be long-lasting. If the injury resulted in wrongful death, the loss you feel can be profound. With effects like this, you can’t just look at an invoice or a bill to see how much it’s costing you. But you can learn how to document pain and suffering so that a court can decide on reasonable monetary compensation.

What Is Pain and Suffering?

“Pain and suffering” is a term used in legal proceedings to refer to physical, mental, and emotional distress caused by an injury or wrongful death. Pain and suffering falls under the category of noneconomic damages, which aren’t directly financial and can’t be measured by simply adding up receipts. Economic damages, on the other hand, can be calculated directly—for example by adding up medical bills or lost wages.

Legally, pain and suffering can include:

• Continuing physical pain and discomfort
• Emotional distress caused by disfigurement, disability, or the disruption of your life
• Depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders
• Shock and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Other mental health issues that interrupt your life
• Reputational damage and embarrassment
• Loss of consortium (the benefits of a marriage or partnership)
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Calculating pain and suffering can be difficult because it’s intangible, which means it isn’t a physical item, like money. The more severe the consequences of an injury or death, the higher compensation will likely be. That’s why it’s important to know how to document pain and suffering for personal injury and wrongful death cases.

How to Document Pain and Suffering for Your Case

While pain and suffering is intangible, you can still prove it exists. By documenting injuries and how they’ve affected the life of the injured person, both physically and mentally, you can show the court that you or your loved one is entitled to compensation for pain and suffering.

Photos and Recordings

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and this is definitely true in a personal injury case. It can take weeks or even months to see the full effects of an injury, and photos and video recordings can show their true extent. For example, a small cut can turn into a big infection. A broken bone can require multiple surgeries. A burn can result in scarring and disfigurement.

You can use visual evidence to document if your recovery process was particularly slow or required additional medical attention. And you can use photos and recordings to show a contrast between your life before the injury occurred and now. For example, if you used to play soccer and now you can barely kick a ball, video evidence can prove your point.

Medical Records

Like visual evidence, medical records are key when considering how to document pain and suffering. Immediate records, like paperwork from the emergency room, show the severity of your injury and whether you were treated correctly.

Longer term records, like from physical therapy, are also important. They’ll show the progress you’ve made in your recovery—or a lack of progress to prove that recovery has been difficult. A slow recovery can prevent you from driving, walking, doing other routine tasks and returning to social activities, which can severely affect your quality of life.

Journals

Journaling is very important to document pain and suffering, both physical and mental. Keep track of your pain levels, including the type of pain, severity on a scale of 1 to 10, and how it affects your daily life. For example, you might say, “Woke up with a burning pain, rated an 8, which kept me from getting out of bed.” Keep track of your medications as well.

You should also journal about your mental and emotional state. If you have nightmares or anxiety attacks, write it down. If you feel so depressed you don’t want to leave your house, write it down. Be as specific as you can, and get professional help if you need it.

Witness Statements

Learning how to document pain and suffering is about painting a picture of how an injury has affected your life. The more vivid the picture, the better chance you have of earning compensation. Statements from your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors can help show the contrast between your life before your injury and afterward.

For example, coworkers could testify if you struggle at work, or could no longer do your job and had to quit. Roommates, friends and spouses can testify about your mood and how it’s affected your relationships. Neighbors can testify about your daily activities—like if you used to walk your dog every day at lunch, and now you can’t. Statements like these can go a long way to proving the amount of pain and suffering you’ve endured.

Expert Testimony

Sometimes, you’ll want or need an expert to testify about the true extent of psychological harm you’ve suffered from an injury. If you’ve been in therapy to cope with your trauma, your therapist can testify about your anxiety, PTSD, depression or other mental health issues. All of these things can take a long time to recover from, and your therapist can give you their notes or write a statement about their impact on your life.

What to Do When You’re Ready to Move Forward

Damages for pain and suffering are just one part of your case. You’ll also want to keep track of medical bills, lost wages and other economic damages. And once you’re ready to file a claim, there’s plenty of paperwork and deadlines involved, including a statute of limitations.
Having an experienced attorney on your side can help you make sense of the entire process and get the outcome you deserve. If you still have questions about how to document pain and suffering—or you’re ready to move forward—contact GT Law Firm today.