The pain doesn’t end when the road rash heals or the cast comes off. It lingers—in your joints, in your sleep, in the hesitation you feel every time you hear an engine start. We refer to these and other non-economic harm as “pain and suffering”.
After a crash, insurance companies will try to quantify your pain and suffering down to a numerical value on a spreadsheet. But you, and the motorcycle accident attorneys at Englander Peebles, know better. A skilled Miami motorcycle accident lawyer will identify every type of pain and suffering you face, evaluate the severity of that pain and suffering, and assign a financial value that reflects those realities. Then, they can inform you of the value of your pain and suffering.
Key Takeaways Involving Motorcycle Accidents
- Pain and suffering damages account for how your accident changes your body, emotions, cognitive abilities, outlook on life, and daily reality.
- Motorcycle riders typically experience more severe pain and suffering because they have almost no protection on impact, and collisions are uniquely traumatic for them.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, depression, fear of riding again, and loss of joy in everyday activities are some common examples of rider-specific pain and suffering.
- Attorneys use structured methods, such as the multiplier and per diem approaches, to determine the value of pain and suffering; however, we must first evaluate your specific damages.
- Insurance companies often downplay the cost of riders’ injuries, and they do the same for riders’ pain and suffering.
- A South Florida motorcycle accident lawyer from Englander Peebles will protect your rights, keep insurers honest, and let you focus on getting better—do not wait to call us.
A Tough Reality: Pain and Suffering Are More Severe for Riders
There are rare exceptions. Generally speaking, though, riders face more severe, wide-reaching pain and suffering than accident victims in motor vehicles.
The same open-air experience that attracts so many to motorcycles also exposes riders to injuries and traumatic experiences that can take years to recover from. With no airbags, no seat belts, and no frame between you and the road, riders face the full brunt of traffic collisions.
Even “low-speed” motorcycle accidents can lead to fractures, road rash, and nerve damage, and the fact is that:
- Many riders experience trauma that reshapes their personality or confidence (and even their willingness to ride again).
- Losing the ability to ride can mean losing a part of your identity.
- Chronic pain and scarring can limit social life, work, and relationships.
The aftermath also carries a cultural weight. In South Florida’s riding community—where bikes are as much lifestyle as transport—being sidelined by injury can feel like exile. Weekend rides along U.S. 1 or meetups in Fort Lauderdale Beach now remind you of your loss. That emotional toll, while invisible, is central to what your claim should reflect.
To add insult to injury, adjusters often blame riders, assuming recklessness instead of reckoning with reality. At Englander Peebles, we’ve seen this story too many times—and rewritten it for our clients by holding negligent drivers and insurers accountable.
Those Unseen Injuries: What Exactly Counts as Pain and Suffering?
We have discussed the unseen toll that riders often suffer, but it’s worth pinpointing exactly what pain and suffering are. This will be a central category of damages in your case, and pain and suffering can include:
- Physical pain, which for riders can mean a daily, unending struggle with stiffness, spasms, acute pain, and lingering discomfort
- Emotional distress such as mood swings, anxiety, or depression stemming from trauma.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a common ailment among accident survivors that can cause flashbacks, nightmares, lost sleep, and dread that makes you avoid riding—or even driving—altogether
- The loss of enjoyment of life, such as missing out on rides with friends, weekend plans, daily fitness routines, and hobbies that once made you feel alive, can take a substantial psychological and emotional toll.
- Disfigurement, which can be a direct result of riders’ contact with asphalt, piping hot vehicle components, and other unforgiving surfaces
Englander Peebles approaches each case by understanding the immense human cost of a crash—not just what’s in your medical chart or summary of annual earnings.
We work with mental health professionals and rehabilitation specialists when necessary to fully document your pain, because insurers rarely appreciate the ripple effect that trauma causes—that failure to measure the non-economic toll of a crash is often intentional, to serve their financial interests.
Your Pain Has a Price: How Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Translate Suffering Into Numbers
Our attorneys use accepted legal formulas to transform something subjective (pain) into something measurable (compensation). This is one of the most significant sources of value for the clients we represent, as these calculations can become complicated quickly.
The Multiplier Method: Scaling Your Suffering
One commonly accepted way to calculate a rider’s pain and suffering is the multiplier method. Here is how that method works.
Your total economic losses—medical bills, rehab costs, lost income, motorcycle replacement costs, and other objectively measurable expenses—are added together, then multiplied by a number that reflects how significantly your injuries and trauma will affect your life.
Moderate injuries might use a multiplier of 2 or 3. Catastrophic, life-changing injuries can justify a multiplier of 5 or higher.
For example:
- Say your medical and economic losses total $150,000
- Say your pain multiplier is four
- You can value your pain and suffering at $600,000, using a multiplier of four, which is $150,000
The multiplier isn’t just about pain—it’s about the total non-economic impact of the accident. Other considerations, like post-traumatic stress disorder, also matter when identifying the appropriate multiplier.
An attorney from Englander Peebles will learn your story and ensure that every sleepless night, every missed ride, and every moment of suffering appear in our valuation of pain and suffering.
The Per Diem Method: Compensating You for Every Day of Pain
Another commonly accepted means of calculating riders’ pain and suffering is the per diem method. Here is how this method works.
A daily dollar amount—say, $250—is assigned. This daily value applies throughout the duration of time you experience the pain and suffering. This may not be the appropriate value in your case, but we will use it as an example.
To get the total value of pain and suffering, we multiply the $250 by the number of days you live with pain, limitations, or emotional fallout. So, if a rider endured pain and suffering for two years (730 days), it will be valued at $182,500.
Some Variables That Can Affect the Cost of a Rider’s Pain and Suffering
The value of pain and suffering isn’t decided by drawing from a hat or throwing a dart at a board. We discussed the two primary frameworks for calculating pain and suffering, but each method requires judgment calls—how much should the multiplier be, and what is the daily value of the pain and suffering?
Some of the variables our Florida motorcycle accident attorneys weigh when calculating pain and suffering are:
- The severity and permanence of your injuries
- The types and severity of emotional and psychological trauma you endure
- The degree of visible scarring or other forms of disfigurement
- How long recovery takes—or if it is indefinite
- Whether your pain keeps you from working or supporting your family
- The extent of accident-related injuries and trauma disrupts your social and personal life
We factor in how your injuries affect your future. For many riders, it’s not the physical limitations and pain that most burden them—it’s a wholly unrecognizable life that follows a crash.
Beyond the Pain and Suffering: The Full Spectrum of Motorcycle Crash Damages
Pain and suffering are a critical type of harm that most riders face because of their collisions. It is not the only category of damages we will need to secure compensation for, though, as you may also need significant payment for:
- Medical costs
- Lost income
- Property damage
- Updates to your home required by physical disability
- A wheelchair-accessible vehicle
- Medical equipment
- Loss of consortium (effects on interpersonal relationships, specifically the one with your spouse)
- Future rehabilitation
In some cases, we also pursue punitive damages—awards intended to punish parties that acted with extreme negligence, such as speeding through red lights or driving while extremely intoxicated.
Insurance Companies’ Tactics Can Feel Callous and Unethical—Because They Often Are
Most riders understandably assume that, once they have started to recover after the crash, the worst is behind them. This tends to be true, but don’t put it past insurance companies to employ bad-faith strategies that can feel nearly as nerve-wracking as the collision itself.
Some of the common insurance traps and tactics we spare riders from are:
- Pressure, including for you to give statements that can directly harm your claim (and save the insurer money)
- Temptation, including in the quick compensation that (the insurance company knows) is far less than you deserve
- Deceit, which might include twisting your statements to make it seem like you were at fault for the crash
- Foot-dragging, as delaying the claims process, is one way that insurance companies ratchet up the financial pressure on vulnerable riders.
- Callousness, which may include dismissing your injuries and trauma as “minor” or “subjective”.
The attorneys at Englander Peebles have played chess with insurers for years. Most often, we conclude the game by declaring “checkmate” and delivering all the compensation our client is entitled to—despite insurers’ best efforts to outmaneuver us.
Our Motorcycle Accident Attorneys Build Riders’ Cases, Component by Component
A strong motorcycle accident case comes together the same way as a timeless motorcycle—one component at a time. Your lawyer must turn the chaos of a crash into a timeline of facts that shows who’s responsible and what you’ve lost.
That means:
- Investigating the scene and interviewing witnesses to determine the accident cause (we know that human error is one of the leading causes of motorcycle accidents, and we will determine if another human’s error caused yours)
- Collecting medical evidence that captures both visible and invisible injuries
- Calculating lost earnings and future costs
- Documenting your day-to-day pain and emotional struggles
- Negotiating fiercely—and taking the case to court if insurers won’t play fair
We also partner with accident reconstructionists to show exactly how a crash occurred—whether it was due to a driver drifting into your lane, a faulty road design, or even defective motorcycle parts.
Each detail of your case and each step in our strategy builds credibility and pressure, ultimately forcing the insurer to realize they can no longer push back.
Our Team Will Also Help You Get Your Affairs—and Your Life—Back in Order
A motorcycle crash can knock your entire life out of balance—financially, emotionally, physically, and even socially. Bills pile up, work stops, independence becomes a thing of the past, and recovery takes precedence over all else, including fun.
Englander Peebles is not like other firms. We are extraordinarily caring, and we help clients get their lives back in order by:
- Stopping collection calls and negotiating medical bills on the clients’ behalf
- Making sure your care continues without interruption, regardless of your financial status or other barriers
- Coordinating with therapists and specialists to arrange necessary treatment (and get documentation critical to your case)
- Handling communication with insurers so you can heal in relative peace
- Keeping you informed, calm, and confident about every aspect of your case
At Englander Peebles, we believe recovery means more than compensation—it means stability, peace of mind, and a plan for the future.
Frequently Asked Questions – Pain and Suffering After a Motorcycle Accident Injury
We have represented many injured riders, and some of the questions that arise most often in our discussions with them are:
What’s the average value of a pain and suffering claim for motorcycle crashes?
There’s no universal figure, and even a reliable average is hard to find. Settlements depend on the severity of your injuries, your recovery time, and the extent of your pain and suffering.
Do I really need to see a doctor if I feel fine after the crash?
Yes. Adrenaline can conceal pain, untreated injuries can worsen, and waiting to get treatment can only hurt your case. Seeing a doctor protects both your health and your legal claim.
How long does it take to receive compensation after the accident?
It varies. Some claims resolve in months. Others require litigation, which can be time-consuming. The more severe your injuries or the harder-nosed the insurer’s tactics, the longer it can take—but your attorney from Englander Peebles will push to resolve your case and get you paid as soon as possible.
Justice and Relief Can Be One Call Away. Reach Out to a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer at Englander Peebles Today.
We do not doubt that your crash has changed your life—but it doesn’t have to define it. The Miami personal injury attorneys at Englander Peebles have helped South Floridian riders rebuild their lives after devastating accidents for many years, holding insurance companies accountable and securing the justice their clients deserved.
Florida’s two-year statute of limitations means every day of hesitation can cost you your right to recover fair compensation. Because you pay Englander Peebles nothing out of pocket, there is no reason to wait.
Contact Englander Peebles today at (954) 500-4878 or visit our website for a complimentary consultation. Let us take the legal fight off your shoulders so you can focus on what really matters—your recovery, your family, and the open road ahead.