Our Services: Demonstrative evidence
Pain and suffering reports
 Pain
and suffering reports developed
by an expert witness can help the judge and jury understand
the details of treating an injury. Instead of bringing on
a parade of witnesses, an option is to retain an expert
who can review the medical records and summarize the pain
and suffering. The Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 1006 states
that contents of voluminous material may be presented by
summary. The comments on that rule state that the use of
summaries is often the only practical means of presenting
the contents of voluminous evidence to the judge and jury.
The person who prepared the summary should be available
to testify at the time of trial
as to the method of preparation of the document and/or to
give an explanation of the summary.
A nurse is an ideal person
to prepare such a report. While doctors specialize in diagnosing
and treating disease, nurses care for the whole person.
The identification of complications, the administration
of pain medications and the analysis of medical records
falls within the scope of practice of a nurse. Physicians
tend to minimize pain and suffering. A great deal of attention
has been focused on this issue recently. Efforts are being
made to teach physicians how to appropriately manage pain
by prescribing sufficiently strong narcotics in correct
dosages. One of the reasons for the development of clinical
practice guidelines on the management of pain was due to
the prescription of inappropriate medications and dosages.
Nurses are frequently involved in assessing and relieving
pain. A nurse is able to explain to the jury the medical
procedures involved in the patient's care, using language
they can understand so that they can appreciate what the
plaintiff went through.
The pain and suffering report
which summarizes medical records is a strategic tool that
should not be overlooked when the circumstances of the case
warrant the preparation of this type of report. The types
of cases in which this type of report is helpful include
the following:
1. The patient has suffered
serious physical injuries as a result of personal injury
or malpractice.
2. The medical records detail
the pain and suffering experienced by the patient.
3. The patient is dead, cognitively
impaired or otherwise unable to provide a coherent description
of the suffering that accompanied the injury.
The typical components of a
pain and suffering report include a narrative summary of
the patient's medical history, a vivid description of the
complications and problems experienced by the patient, quotes
from the medical record, and charts of complications and
pain medications. Medical records, patient diaries and interviews
with the patient can be used to prepare this type of report.
The length of the report can vary from 5-12 or more pages,
depending on the size of the medical records and the injuries.
Pain and suffering reports
are used to reach a settlement in the case. The following
case histories demonstrate that this tool brings results.
Patricia Iyer was
the expert in these cases:
1. A woman was admitted to
a hospital for treatment of cervical cancer. The oncologist
made an arithmetic error and ordered a total dose of chemotherapy
that was 4 times larger than it should have been. The pain
and suffering report provided vivid descriptions of how
the plaintiff's body became swollen, her skin peeled off
in strips and blood oozed from her eyes. The case was settled
out of court for $1.4 million with a structured settlement
payout of $4 million. The family received $500,000 for the
woman's 15 days of pain and suffering.
2. An 18 month-old toddler
developed severe esophageal burns after he drank acrylic
nail primer at a beauty shop. He went through a year of
painful dilations of his esophagus before he finally healed.
Using the pain and suffering report, the attorney was successful
in settling the case for $100,000 and acknowledged that
the size of the verdict was quite good considering that
there were $10,000 in medical expenses and the child sustained
no permanent damage.
3. An elderly man developed
complications after a gall bladder surgery and slowly died
over a three month period of time. The testimony at the
time of the trial focused on the pain and suffering endured
by this man during his agonizing death. The jury awarded
$560,000.
4. A physician received a head
injury when she was rear ended. A pain and suffering report
was prepared using her diary which she kept on her computer.
The 250 pages of daily entries were summarized in a 8 page
report accompanied by a lengthy chart which detailed her
symptoms. The attorney was able to settle the case for $700,000
which was the policy limit.
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