In a personal injury lawsuit, several matters will be considered so as to determine the amount that you should be compensated. One of the factors that will be considered is pain and suffering. There is no actual way to place a number on the pain and/or trauma you have experienced due to an injury or life event. No amount of money can erase the past or go back in time. But the recovery of an award for "Pain and Suffering" can help you and your loved ones cope after an incident.

The compensation will be valued based on the severity of the pain and suffering that you went through and the expected duration of recovery from the two. Thus, after the accident, it is up to you and your attorney to put together all the details of what you are going through since the accident and the time it will take you to recover. Once this is determined, a more accurate amount of the compensation can be calculated.

• Medication- all the medication that you have taken to relieve pain and suffering will be taken in to account when calculating the value. This includes the medication prescribed to relieve physical pain, emotional pain and any other symptom that was as a result of the accident. Valuation of the expenses that you incurred from medication is usually very easy if you have all the prescriptions and the receipts. You should ask for printouts for the medication from the health facility in case you do not have them.

• The length of the recovery- the length of recovery determines how long it takes for you to recover from the pain and suffering. The amount will depend on the length of time that you take to recover from the injury. A health professional will help you in establishing the time frame for the recovery. He or she should be able to draw a plan for this period indicating the treatment that you will be going through. This will help in giving an estimate of what the pain and suffering will cost you in terms of monetary and non-monetary expenses.

For the claim to be successful, ensure that you collect all the evidence that you need with the help of your lawyer. Every time you go for treatment, you should ensure that you document it, it can be presented to a court if necessary.