The formula to determine pain and suffering damages.

There is an easy way to determine what the noneconomic damages in a case is worth. When patients’ health is taken through no fault of their own, the law requires patients receive 100% of what was taken. The way to measure what is taken from a person’s health is the fair trade value of that harm. In America, no one willingly trades their time for less than $15 an hour. As a result, $15 an hour is a conservative benchmark for measuring noneconomic damages.

Each damage must be weighed individually under the law. Consider pain. If a person is going to suffer pain for 32 years because a Defendant took her health and caused pain, then the person should receive $15 an hour for all their conscious hours for 32 years. If a person sleeps for 7 hours a night, that leaves 17 hours a day. In that case, the math is simple. $15/hr times 17 hours a day times 365 days a year times 32 years= $2,978,400. And the law requires this calculation for each element of damages: suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment or disability, loss of capacity to enjoy life, and inconvenience. This is the full justice, common sense formula I put before open-minded juries to ensure 100% of the value of what is taken is restored to the people robbed of their health by defendant’s who commit malpractice.

While attorneys for victims of malpractice are prevented by the law to be honest with juries to tell them there is ample insurance to cover these losses, or that if there is not that the insurance company will ultimately pay through a bad faith case, presenting the full losses to a jury who is committed to a fair fight will more often than not lead to justice.