When Do You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?

If you’re an injured victim of someone else’s negligence in Southern California, you need the advice and services of a San Bernardino County personal injury lawyer, and you need to contact that lawyer immediately.

When someone is negligent or breaches a duty of care and causes another person’s injury, the injured party may seek monetary compensation with a personal injury lawsuit. Personal injury cases are civil proceedings that assign liability and compensate victims for their damages.

Personal injury claims may arise from traffic accidents, slip and fall injuries, medical malpractice incidents, and other accident scenarios. If you are injured because a motorist was distracted or a property owner was negligent, for example, you are entitled by law to compensation for your pain and suffering as well as your medical expenses and lost income.

What Constitutes Pain and Suffering?

If someone behaves negligently and injures you, a San Bernardino County personal injury lawyer can help you recover compensation for the financial losses (medical bills and lost wages) that directly result from your accident and injuries.

Personal injury victims may also pursue compensation for “noneconomic” damages – personal pain and suffering. “Pain and suffering” is a legal phrase for the physical pain and psychological distress that a victim of someone else’s negligence suffers due to an injury.

A severe injury may make a victim unable to perform simple tasks without pain or enjoy his or her favorite activities. Noneconomic damages compensate victims for the effects of their injuries on their lives. Noneconomic damages cannot be quantified with medical bills and receipts.

How Are Noneconomic Damages Calculated?

An injury victim in a personal injury case – the plaintiff – may have a stack of receipts verifying his or her economic damages, but proving you have noneconomic damages is more challenging. Consider the answers to these questions when you seek noneconomic damages:

  1. How has your injury affected your daily life and daily routine?
  2. Does your injury mean you need assistance while dressing and bathing?
  3. Has your injury caused financial hardship, a lay-off, or a termination?
  4. Are you afraid to leave your residence because you’re terrified of another accident?

California allows juries in personal injury cases to use standard, widely accepted formulas to determine a final dollar amount for noneconomic damages. However, when jurors make these determinations, they may use any method and arrive at any dollar amount they deem appropriate.

Is There a Limit to Pain and Suffering Compensation?

In most personal injury cases, California imposes no “cap” or limitation on pain and suffering damages, except in medical malpractice cases. In those cases, the cap is currently (as of 2025) $430,000 in non-death cases and $600,000 in medical malpractice-related wrongful death cases.

California law also restricts noneconomic damages in these situations in cases arising from traffic accidents:

  1. Drivers convicted of causing an accident while driving under the influence may not receive noneconomic damages.
  2. Uninsured vehicle owners may not obtain or be indemnified for noneconomic damages after an accident except for damages caused by intoxicated motorists.
  3. Uninsured motorists may not receive or be indemnified for noneconomic damages after an accident in any circumstances.
  4. California law also prohibits you from obtaining compensation if you were injured while committing or fleeing from the commission of a felony.

How Will an Attorney Fight for Your Pain and Suffering Damages?

Accident victims express psychological distress in a variety of ways. Victims may not be capable of holding a job, maintaining friendships, or concentrating on essential tasks. For some accident victims, psychological distress may not materialize for weeks after an accident.

Victims who have been disabled, permanently or temporarily, may struggle with sleep or eating disorders, anger, depression, guilt, anguish, or a fear of the future. Psychological distress can linger indefinitely even after victims have healed from their physical injuries.

Using medical records and the testimony of your family and friends, a Southern California personal injury attorney can demonstrate to an insurance company – or, if necessary, to a jury – how much psychological distress you’ve suffered because someone else was negligent.

How Should a Victim of Negligence Deal With Emotional Distress?

Emotional distress damages lives and relationships. If you are suffering emotional distress after an injury, take these measures:

  1. Do not miss any appointments with your doctor, and strictly adhere to his or her orders.
  2. Speak to a counselor or someone else you trust.
  3. Eat right. Stay active. Exercise. Get enough sleep – but not too much.
  4. Review your legal options and rights with a Southern California personal injury attorney.

Most personal injury cases in this state are resolved privately, so most victims do not have to make a court appearance. If your claim cannot be settled privately, your attorney will take the case to court and ask jurors to order the payment of your compensation.

Are You Facing a Deadline for Taking Legal Action?

The statute of limitations for initiating a personal injury lawsuit in this state is two years from the date of your injury. The deadline has several exceptions, but you must not wait two years to take legal action. As soon as a doctor has treated you, contact a personal injury attorney.

If you can’t work because of your injury and psychological distress, don’t let financial concerns prevent you from seeking justice. Personal injury lawyers represent clients on a contingent fee basis, so you’ll owe no lawyer’s fee upfront or until you recover compensation.

Take Your Injury Claim to The Paris Firm

To maximize your pain and suffering compensation, you should be represented by a skilled and experienced California personal injury lawyer who will develop the strongest possible case on your behalf. At The Paris Firm, we have recovered millions of dollars for our clients.

Since 1994, the legal team at The Paris Firm has helped the injured victims of negligence recover the compensation they are entitled to. Let us evaluate your case. We will tell you what you can reasonably expect in pain and suffering damages and how best to move forward with your claim.

If you’ve been injured through no fault of your own in Southern California, we offer a free, no-obligation case evaluation. To learn more or to begin the personal injury process immediately, call The Paris Firm now at 909-325-6185 to schedule your free case evaluation.