August 20, 2012
Basics of Pain and Suffering Awards
If you are considering a personal injury claim, you might have heard about compensation for pain and suffering and may be curious about whether you might qualify to receive those damages.
Not all injuries justify pain and suffering awards. Generally, a victim can receive recompense for past, present and future physical anguish. A jury usually considers many different issues when making its decision. Some of those issues are:
· The type of injury sustained. Injuries that produce constant and continuing pain as well as brain injuries often receive large amounts.
· The age of the victim. A younger victim who will have to endure a lifetime of pain can get a larger award.
· The effect of the injury on the victim, such as the certainty of pain in the past, present or future.
Juries who deliberate on pain and suffering issues are instructed to “reasonably compensate” a victim, yet those determinations can vary widely depending on the facts of each case and the instructions to the jury. Further, there may also be additional state and local conditions that must be met to receive pain and suffering damages as well as limits on how much money can be given.
If a jury awards pain and suffering damages, the award can be later modified. The typical reasons that pain and suffering awards are modified are because of procedural reasons or because the judge deems that the award is too excessive.
As proving and determining damages can be tricky for this type of award, it is always best to keep detailed records and seek out expert advice when considering pursing pain and suffering damages.
Source: Findlaw.com, “How Much Pain and Suffering is Enough to Sue?,” Andrew Chow, 6/08/2012
August 6, 2012
Traumatic Brain Injuries – VA Funds Development of Self-Care Assessment Tool
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced high numbers of traumatic brain injuries from the intense nature of explosive warfare in those conflicts. The Indiana University School of Medicine reports about 180,000 such vets received “mild to moderate brain injury” and continue to suffer from:
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Depression
- Attention deficits
- Reliving trauma
Other mild TBI symptoms can include memory loss, balance problems and light sensitivity.
Dr. Jacob Kean at IU says that perceptions of brain injuries are changing in that it really is a chronic, degenerative and lifelong problem. To improve ongoing TBI treatment and patient support, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a “telehealth” research grant to Dr. Kean that began July 1.
The project seeks to develop information technology that can assess how well veterans are taking care of their mild TBI conditions at home. As it is difficult for some vets to travel regularly to VA medical facilities, TBI self-management is important and logical.
The new assessment tool could help doctors better instruct their TBI patients in individualized self-care plans and ultimately improve remote treatment. This research expands the practice of telehealth from remote measurement of objective symptoms like blood pressure or pulse into remote assessment of “symptoms related to symptoms and emotions,” according to Dr. Kean.
Five VA hospitals will be used for system testing.
Source: FierceHealthIT, “VA, Indiana University to study telehealth impact on brain injuries,” Dan Bowman, June 29, 2012