It’s easy to put a number on medical bills and lost wages. Just add up the invoices and the missed paychecks, and you have a figure. Pain and suffering doesn’t work that way, and that’s exactly why people ask “can I sue for pain and suffering?” more often than almost any other question after an accident.
The short answer is yes. In most personal injury cases, you can pursue compensation for pain and suffering. The harder question is how much pain and suffering is actually worth, and the answer will depend on the specifics of your accident.
What Counts as Pain and Suffering
Legally, pain and suffering falls under what’s called non-economic damages. This label is just a way of separating it from the bills and receipts that make up your economic damages. It covers physical pain itself, but it also covers things that are harder to put into words: feeling anxiety every time you get back in a car, losing sleep over the accident, not enjoying activities you used to love, and strain on your relationships and your daily life.
At Heit Law, we’ve represented clients with injuries ranging from soft tissue damage that resolved in a few months to traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries that changed the entire trajectory of someone’s life. The pain and suffering value in those cases looks nothing alike, and it shouldn’t.
How Pain and Suffering Is Calculated
There’s no formula for pain and suffering, which is why insurance companies and attorneys land so far apart on a number. A handful of things tend to push the value up or down.
First, how severe and how permanent the injury is matters most: a broken bone that heals completely just doesn’t carry the same weight as a spinal cord injury or a TBI you’ll deal with for the rest of your life. How long your recovery takes matters too. Months of physical therapy add up to something beyond the initial injury itself.
Then there’s how your daily life has actually changed, whether you can still do your job, get down on the floor with your kids, or sleep through the night. And documentation matters a lot more than people expect. Medical records, your own notes on how you’re feeling week to week, sometimes a few words from a spouse or parent who’s watched the difference up close.
Insurance adjusters often run a multiplier, taking your economic damages and multiplying by something between 1.5 and 5 depending on how bad the injury is. Treat that as a starting point for negotiation, not a rule, because it’s usually the reason their first offer comes in low.
Ohio and Tennessee Both Allow These Claims, With a Catch
Both Ohio and Tennessee permit pain and suffering claims as part of a personal injury case. Tennessee, though, caps non-economic damages at $750,000 in most cases (the cap increases to $1 million for catastrophic injuries). Ohio’s approach is more nuanced: there’s generally no cap for catastrophic injuries, but non-catastrophic claims can be limited depending on the circumstances.
Ohio and Tennessee also both follow comparative negligence rules, which means if you’re found partially at fault for the accident, your total recovery, including pain and suffering, gets reduced by your percentage of fault. As long as you’re under 50% responsible, you can still recover.
When Pursuing Pain and Suffering Makes the Most Sense
Not every case is going to result in a meaningful pain and suffering award, and a lawyer who tells you otherwise before reviewing your situation isn’t being straight with you. But there are situations where it’s worth pushing hard on this part of your claim.
If your injuries are serious enough that they’ve changed how you live day to day, it may be worth documenting and pursuing a claim. If the insurance company’s offer barely covers your medical bills and ignores everything else you’ve been through, that’s a sign the offer isn’t accounting for the full picture. And if you’re dealing with a long recovery, ongoing pain, or psychological effects like anxiety or PTSD following the accident, those are real damages under the law, not just inconveniences to be brushed aside.
How We Build the Non-Economic Side of a Case
When we take on a case at Heit Law, we don’t treat pain and suffering as an afterthought tacked onto the medical bills. We:
- Collect detailed medical records and treatment history to establish the full scope of the injury
- Document how the injury has affected your work, your relationships, and your day-to-day routine
- Where appropriate, gather statements from family members who’ve seen the changes firsthand
- Build a demand package that presents the non-economic damages with the same level of evidence as the economic ones
- Negotiate based on the real impact of your injuries, not just the multiplier an adjuster wants to apply
- File a lawsuit if the insurance company won’t acknowledge the full value of your claim
You work directly with the attorneys handling your case throughout that process, not a case manager fielding your calls. That’s been part of how the firm operates from the start.
Talk to an Attorney About Your Pain and Suffering Claim
If you’re asking yourself can I sue for pain and suffering after an accident in Ohio or Tennessee, the answer depends on the details of what happened and how it’s affected your life since. Contact Heit Law today for a free consultation. We’ll walk you through what your case might be worth and what it takes to pursue the compensation you’re owed.
