How to Get Compensation for Emotional Distress After a Product Liability Accident

Product manufacturers and retailers have responsibilities beyond the market.

If you buy a new product, you have a legal right to expect that it will work safely and as advertised. However, it is no secret that manufacturers cut corners, sometimes because they had no reason to believe that a particular component was defective, and sometimes because they prioritize cost-cutting and profitability over consumers’ well-being. In either case, you should never have to feel like you are on the line for a corporation’s mistake.

Under New York law, you could be entitled to file a product liability lawsuit against the person or party who caused your injuries. Aside from recovering damages for your economic losses, you could also obtain compensation for emotional pain, suffering, and hardship.

Emotional Pain And Suffering After An Accident

The term “pain and suffering” describes the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of an accident-related injury. In a legal context, the compensation you receive for accident-related pain and suffering falls into the category of non-economic damages.

Unlike economic damages, which are intended to compensate verifiable financial losses and anticipated expenses, non-economic damages are designed to make amends for the psychological impact of an accident.

You could be entitled to damages for emotional pain and suffering if the accident:

1. Left you depressed or anxious;
2. Triggered a condition like post-traumatic stress disorder;
3. Caused significant disfigurement, like scarring;
4. Diminished your quality of life;
5. Led to a general loss of enjoyment;
6. Took a toll on your marriage or otherwise deprived you of companionship;
7. Made you feel ashamed, humiliated, or embarrassed by the way that you look or looked;
8. Manifested as an unexpected, unwanted complication, such as erectile dysfunction; or
9. Caused you to develop a profound new fear.

In most product liability lawsuits, emotional pain and suffering are only one component of recovery. As a general rule, New York’s courts can only award damages if you have also sustained some form of serious physical injury. This means that, when damages for emotional pain and suffering are awarded, they are almost always accompanied by compensation for other categories of economic and non-economic damages.

Calculating Compensation For Emotional Pain And Suffering

Non-economic damages are often a sticking point in settlement negotiations.

Since nobody can put a dollar value on your quality of life, confidence, and sense of self, most courts in New York do not have a standard formula used to determine how much compensation emotional pain and suffering should be worth.

Instead, if and when calculations are made, they are typically reliant on either of the following methods:

1. The multiplayer method assesses your economic damages and then multiplies them by another number. If your injuries are not very serious, the number might be 1 or 2. If your injuries are life-altering, it could be 3, 4, or 5.
2. The per diem method assigns a set dollar amount for each day that an injury has impacted and is expected to affect your well-being.

The multiplayer and per diem methods are not the only factors used in calculations.

Most calculations and offers of settlement should consider other factors, too, including your age, the relative severity of your injuries, and how they have affected your day-to-day life. Under most circumstances, more serious injuries lead to larger awards, but exceptions are not uncommon.