When an accident takes away the things you love—like hiking your favorite trails in Salt Lake City or grabbing groceries with ease—you don’t just hurt physically. You may feel unsure, frustrated, and maybe even lost.
Utah law allows pain and suffering damages to be awarded to injury victims to acknowledge the emotional and physical toll. You didn’t cause the accident, yet you face pain, emotional stress, and days that feel harder than they should. Our personal injury attorneys explain more. Continue reading to learn how these damages are calculated.
Pain and suffering are part of a category called non‑economic damages. Economic damages cover bills, lost wages, and other easily calculated harms. Non‑economic damages cover what hurts inside—the fear, anxiety, sleepless nights, emotional weight, and loss of everyday life joys.
Salt Lake City isn’t a courtroom full of insurance code readers. It’s a place where people live, feel, and recover. That’s why Utah doesn’t use a single formula for every case. There are two main methods, and the one that fits your story matters most.
Imagine your medical bills totaling $20,000. If your case is serious, a court might apply a multiplier to these damages to acknowledge the pain, fear, and life disruption you’ve endured. For example, if the multiplier is 3 in this case, then $60,000 in pain and suffering on top of your bills.
This approach treats every day of your suffering like a number. Say you pick $200 a day, and your recovery lasts 150 days. That gives you $30,000 for pain and suffering.
Both methods rely on the specific story of your injury—its severity, how it changed your life, how long it lasted.
How pain and suffering damages are calculated depends on the details of your recovery.
Some of the following factors carry more weight when deciding which method fits your case best:
This choice isn’t random. It reflects the real impact you feel, day after day.
Utah generally doesn’t cap pain and suffering in most personal injury cases. Medical malpractice is one exception, with a cap of over $450,000, adjusted for inflation. Other personal injury cases don’t hit that cap. Instead, the value depends on your injuries, your evidence, and how clearly we present your story.
To recover pain and suffering damages, you need a diagnosis, but you also need a clear picture of how the injury affected your life. The stronger your evidence, the more likely insurers or juries will take your experience seriously.
The following evidence can support your claim:
When insurance companies see well‑documented suffering, they take your claim seriously. For example, suppose you twisted your knee in a crash. You can’t hike Angels Landing anymore. You don’t sleep well. You bounce from PT to doctor to work, just trying to keep things going. Your medical bills are $15,000.
If we choose a multiplier of 4, that adds $60,000. If you prefer per diem, and you set $150 per day over 200 days, that’s $30,000. Either method points to your real suffering and how much it deserves.
After an accident, you shouldn’t have to become a legal expert just to get treated fairly. You’re trying to recover, manage appointments, and hold your life together. That’s where we come in.
At McMinn Personal Injury Lawyers, we handle the legal heavy lifting so you can focus on healing. We ensure your pain is documented, your story is heard, and your claim reflects what you’ve been through.
Everyone’s injury is different. Your pain, loss, and story matter in the settlement process. You didn’t ask for this accident. But now that it happened, you deserve someone who understands how deeply it affects you. Reach out to our Salt Lake City personal injury attorneys today for a free consultation.
McMinn Personal Injury Lawyers – Austin, TX Office
502 W 14th St, Austin, TX 78701
(512) 474-0222
McMinn Personal Injury Lawyers – Salt Lake City, UT Office
650 S 500, Suite 290, Salt Lake City, UT 84104
(385) 462-7630
