Legal Dictionary

Pain and Suffering

Symptoms resulting from an injury which may vary person by person or by the extent of a victim’s injury.

Examples of how pain and suffering may take form include: physical and mental distress over an injury, agony or grief from the loss of a loved one, the difficulty processing a major life change, depression, embarrassment from the appearance of an injury.

The dollar value of damages for pain and suffering varies from case to case. Pain and suffering is in its own category of damages. (Separate from: medical bills, future medicals, and lost wages which can be calculated, called “special damages.”)