Category: Personal Injury

The most critical thing you should know after you file a lawsuit for injury is to understand how to calculate the compensation. The pain and suffering that one undergoes after a personal injury has irreversible effects. Apart from the pain, loss of salary due to missed work, rehabilitation, stress, loss of private belongings, break in daily routine work should be taken into account. The compensation will be the sum of all these when you are calculating the compensation for injury.

The general formula for compensation is
Special Damages * General damages multiplier (1.5-5) = Total compensation

Special damages: This is simple to calculate and is the total of all the financial expenses that can be proved due to injury.Medical Bills

• Medication
• Stay in the hospital
• Lost wages
• Rehabilitation
• Lost property
• Fee paid out of pocket

General damages: This is hard to pinpoint and hence difficult to calculate the amount. These damages include:

• Physical pain
• Emotional stress
• Normal life disrupted
• Diminution of zest and consortium
• Negligence

Calculating general damages using multiplier: Calculation of these damages cannot be done using bills. Insurers and law of court convert these into a multiplier for their compensation formula. It can change from 1.5 to 5 based on the damages. The multiplier will be high for a person who has suffered a maximum extent and has endured a lot. It results in the victim getting higher compensation.

Each case is unique, and the insurers will ensure that you will not know the formula they are using to factor in your compensation. It is best if you employ a lawyer for your claim to calculate the payout.

All medical negligence claims can be categorized as follows:

•  Wrong diagnosis
•  Negligence affecting pregnancy and childbirth
• Wrong prescription or drug administration
• Errors during surgery

Wrong diagnosis: It is a leading type of error made by a physician, and the most commonly misdiagnosed illnesses are infections, tumors, blood clot, heart attack and heart diseases. The reason for this wrong diagnosis can be because the symptoms in the patients are not typical, but the consequence of it is life-threatening or fatal. The physician tends to lose valuable time treating the wrong condition.

Negligence affecting pregnancy and childbirth: The leading types of malpractice during pregnancy and childbirth is:

• Unexplained vaginal bleeding
• Unusually long labor and injury to mother and baby
• Hemorrhage
• Oversight during C section or during administering anesthesia
• Nerve injury to the baby during labor
• Premature babies

Wrong prescription or drug administration: These claims are also common and are due to medication errors. The cause is that the physician prescribes the wrong quantity, the wrong medication, the pharmacy gives out the wrong drugs, the caretaker administers the wrong amount. It is easy to wrongly administer medicines if anyone in the entire chain of drugs misses a decimal point the patient can be administered too much or too less.

Errors during surgery: It is not uncommon for mistakes to happen during surgery. The most common mistakes are damage to a nerve, failing to control bleeding, leaving something inside during surgery, like a sponge inside the patient, performing wrong operations or performing on the wrong part is all part of the medical negligence claims. Anesthesia-related negligence is also not uncommon.