The Short Answer:
Pain and suffering is the physical discomfort and emotional or mental distress a person experiences because of an injury. Under Arkansas law, it is a form of non-economic loss that may include pain, suffering, and mental anguish already experienced and reasonably certain to occur in the future. Unlike a medical bill, it has no fixed financial value and can be difficult to calculate the full extent of without a lawyer.
Key Takeaways
- Pain and suffering includes both physical discomfort and the emotional or mental effects of an injury.
- It’s a non-economic loss because it cannot be measured directly through bills, receipts, or lost income.
- Physical suffering may include immediate symptoms, treatment-related discomfort, chronic pain, and physical limitations.
- Mental anguish may include fear, anxiety, humiliation, grief, sleep problems, and other injury-related emotional distress.
- Arkansas law recognizes pain and suffering experienced in the past as well as suffering reasonably certain to occur in the future.
Table of Contents
- What Does “Pain and Suffering” Mean in Legal Terms?
- How Does Arkansas Law Define Pain and Suffering?
- Is Pain and Suffering the Same as Non-Economic Damages?
- What Is Physical Pain and Suffering?
- What Is Mental Anguish or Emotional Suffering?
- How Can an Injury Affect Daily Life Without Causing a Financial Loss?
- Are Scarring and Disfigurement Considered Pain and Suffering?
- What Is the Difference Between Past and Future Pain and Suffering?
- Why Is Pain and Suffering Different for Every Person?
- FAQs: Pain and Suffering
- Talk to Niblock Law Firm About How an Injury Has Affected You
- Related Articles & Info
What Does “Pain and Suffering” Mean in Legal Terms?
Pain and suffering is a legal term for the physical discomfort and emotional or mental distress a person experiences because of an injury. It describes the human effects of the injury rather than financial losses such as medical expenses or lost income.
In this context, “damages” means compensation sought in a personal injury case for a loss recognized by law. Pain and suffering damages address effects that do not come with a clear price, including physical pain, fear, anxiety, sleep disruption, and emotional distress.
Pain and suffering is not a separate injury or medical diagnosis. Instead, it describes the consequences of an injury and how they affect the person physically and emotionally. Although the phrase is often used broadly, courts may distinguish among physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and other specific types of non-economic harm.
How Does Arkansas Law Define Pain and Suffering?
Under Arkansas law, pain, suffering, and mental anguish may be recognized as compensatory damages for the non-financial effects of an injury. Arkansas Model Jury Instruction AMI 2205 divides these experiences into 2 time periods:
- Past pain and suffering: Physical discomfort or mental anguish the person has already experienced.
- Future pain and suffering: Physical discomfort or mental anguish reasonably certain to be experienced in the future.
Arkansas law doesn’t provide an exhaustive list of sensations, symptoms, or emotional responses that qualify. Pain and suffering may include different experiences depending on the injury, its effects, and the individual involved.
This means the legal definition is not limited to constant physical pain or a diagnosed mental health condition. It may encompass physical discomfort, emotional distress, or mental anguish connected to an injury. Arkansas courts treat these experiences as a traditional form of compensatory damages, but the specific forms of harm involved vary from person to person.
Is Pain and Suffering the Same as Non-Economic Damages?
Pain and suffering is a type of non-economic damage, but the terms aren’t completely interchangeable.
Non-economic damages address losses that affect a person’s body, mind, relationships, or quality of life without having a fixed financial amount. Pain and suffering falls within this category because physical discomfort and emotional distress cannot be measured directly through bills or receipts.
In everyday conversation, people often use “pain and suffering” as an umbrella term for several non-economic effects. However, Arkansas courts may treat physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and other forms of harm as separate legal elements. Which categories apply depends on the person’s experience and the jury instructions appropriate for the case.
Pain and Suffering vs. Economic Losses
The main difference is whether the loss has a directly measurable financial value:
| Type of loss | Legal meaning | Common examples | Fixed financial value? |
| Pain and suffering | A type of non-economic loss addressing the physical and emotional effects of an injury | Physical pain, discomfort, fear, anxiety, mental anguish, and sleep disruption | No. These experiences do not come with bills or receipts. |
| Other non-economic losses | Non-financial effects that may overlap with pain and suffering but can be treated as separate legal elements | Disfigurement and reduced enjoyment of life | No. Their effects are personal and do not have a preset price. |
| Economic losses | Financial costs or income losses associated with an injury | Medical expenses, lost income, and property damage | Yes. They can generally be documented with bills, records, or receipts. |
What Is Physical Pain and Suffering?
Physical pain and suffering refers to the unpleasant bodily sensations, discomfort, and physical distress a person experiences because of an injury and its effects.
It isn’t limited to severe or constant pain. Physical suffering can include aching, burning, throbbing, stabbing pain, soreness, tenderness, stiffness, sensitivity, weakness, or general discomfort. Symptoms may be continuous, appear in recurring flare-ups, or occur only during certain movements and activities.
Pain and suffering may also include discomfort associated with necessary medical care, such as surgery, injections, medication side effects, physical therapy, or rehabilitation. The experience is personal: 2 people with similar injuries may feel different types or levels of pain.
Immediate Physical Pain
Immediate pain is discomfort felt at the time of an injury or during the hours and days that follow. It may include:
- Sharp or sudden pain
- Soreness and tenderness
- Swelling or inflammation
- Headaches
- Muscle spasms
- Sensitivity around the injured area
Pain isn’t always noticeable immediately. Shock and adrenaline can temporarily mask symptoms, causing soreness, stiffness, or other discomfort to appear later.
Ongoing or Chronic Physical Pain
Ongoing pain continues or returns after the initial injury period. Chronic pain generally lasts beyond the expected healing period and may remain even after the injury has medically stabilized.
This form of pain may involve:
- Constant aching, burning, or throbbing
- Recurring symptoms or flare-ups
- Pain triggered by movement, sitting, standing, or physical activity
- Discomfort that interrupts sleep or rest
- Pain that makes it harder to move, focus, or complete ordinary activities
Ongoing pain doesn’t have to remain at the same intensity. A person may have manageable symptoms on some days and significant flare-ups on others.
Physical Discomfort and Limitations
Physical suffering can involve more than an intense pain sensation. An injury may cause stiffness, weakness, fatigue, restricted movement, numbness, sensitivity, or physical strain as the body compensates for an injured area.
For example, a person may be able to walk but experience pain with every step. Another person may retain movement in an injured joint but struggle to bend, lift, reach, or remain in one position for long periods. These limitations can create physical suffering even when the person can still perform the activity.
The discomfort caused by a limitation is part of the person’s physical experience. Financial consequences, such as lost income, are separate economic losses.
What Is Mental Anguish or Emotional Suffering?
Mental anguish is the emotional or psychological distress a person experiences because of an injury and its effects. Emotional suffering can occur at the same time as physical pain, but the 2 experiences aren’t identical. It may involve a diagnosed condition such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. However, a formal diagnosis isn’t the only way a person can experience meaningful emotional distress.
Not every moment of frustration or unhappiness is mental anguish. The distress must be connected to the injury or its consequences.
Fear and Anxiety
Fear may begin during the event that caused the injury and continue afterward. Anxiety can also develop around the injury, medical treatment, recovery, or the possibility of being hurt again.
Examples include:
- Panic or a persistent sense of danger
- Anxiety about pain, treatment, or recovery
- Fear of reinjury
- New fears associated with driving, walking, working, or other activities
- Hypervigilance, such as constantly watching for possible threats
Depression, Sadness, and Emotional Distress
An injury can change a person’s independence, routine, and sense of well-being. These changes may contribute to:
- Persistent sadness or hopelessness
- Irritability or frequent mood changes
- Emotional withdrawal from family and friends
- Feeling overwhelmed by physical changes
- Distress about a long or uncertain recovery
- Frustration with needing help from others
Temporary disappointment is different from emotional suffering that meaningfully affects a person’s daily life.
Trauma and Intrusive Symptoms
Some injuries are connected to frightening or traumatic events. The person may continue to experience the event mentally even after the immediate danger has passed.
Trauma-related suffering may include disturbing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance of reminders, or unusually strong reactions to sounds, places, and situations associated with the event. These effects may be symptoms of PTSD, but trauma-related distress doesn’t always involve a formal PTSD diagnosis.
Humiliation, Embarrassment, and Loss of Confidence
Mental anguish can also result from changes in appearance, physical ability, or independence. A person may feel embarrassed about a visible injury, uncomfortable in social settings, or less confident because they can no longer move or function as they did before.
Needing assistance with bathing, dressing, transportation, or other private and routine tasks may also cause humiliation or emotional distress. These feelings describe the personal consequences of the injury rather than the physical injury itself.
How Can an Injury Affect Daily Life Without Causing a Financial Loss?
An injury can affect how a person sleeps, thinks, moves, completes routine tasks, and interacts with others, even when those changes do not create a bill or reduce their income. These everyday disruptions can illustrate the physical and emotional experience of pain and suffering.
| Area of daily life | How pain and suffering may affect it |
| Sleep and rest | Pain may make it difficult to fall asleep, remain asleep, or find a comfortable position. Anxiety or nightmares may also interrupt rest. |
| Concentration | Physical discomfort or emotional distress may make it harder to read, follow conversations, remember information, or complete tasks. |
| Energy and mood | Ongoing symptoms may cause fatigue, irritability, reduced patience, or less emotional availability for others. |
| Personal care | Bathing, dressing, preparing food, or completing other routine tasks may become painful, slower, or emotionally difficult. |
| Movement and activity | A person may avoid certain movements or activities because they cause pain or create fear of reinjury. |
| Routine and connection | Changes in daily habits may leave a person feeling isolated, dependent on others, or disconnected from their usual life. |
These effects may not appear on a receipt, but they can still represent meaningful changes in the person’s physical comfort, emotional well-being, and everyday experience. Our injury attorneys can review your circumstances and help you understand what non-economic damages apply to your case. We help ensure you recover the full extent of past and future damages legally available.
Are Scarring and Disfigurement Considered Pain and Suffering?
Scarring and disfigurement can cause physical pain and emotional suffering, but Arkansas law treats the visible injury itself as a separate element of damages. Arkansas Model Jury Instruction AMI 2208 specifically addresses scars, disfigurement, and other visible results of an injury.
- Scarring refers to lasting marks or changes to the skin following an injury or medical treatment.
- Disfigurement refers to a lasting alteration to a person’s appearance or bodily form.
A scar or disfigurement may overlap with pain and suffering in several ways. It may cause:
- Tightness, sensitivity, itching, or physical discomfort
- Embarrassment or reduced self-confidence
- Anxiety about unwanted attention or other people’s reactions
- Emotional distress related to an altered appearance or self-image
A visible scar isn’t automatically the same as pain and suffering. Under Arkansas’s model jury instructions, the scar or disfigurement may be considered separately from any physical discomfort or mental anguish it causes. This distinction allows the visible change and its physical or emotional effects to be described accurately without treating them as the same loss.
What Is the Difference Between Past and Future Pain and Suffering?
Past pain and suffering has already occurred when a claim is evaluated, while future pain and suffering is reasonably certain to continue or occur afterward.
Past Pain and Suffering
Past pain and suffering includes the physical discomfort and mental anguish a person experiences from the time of the injury through the point when damages are considered.
It can include continuous pain as well as intermittent symptoms. For example, pain may come and go, appear only during certain activities, or occur in recurring flare-ups. Emotional distress may also change over time while still forming part of the person’s past experience.
Future Pain and Suffering
Future pain and suffering refers to physical discomfort or mental anguish reasonably certain to continue or occur later. It may include existing symptoms that are expected to persist or symptoms expected to develop as an injury progresses.
“Future” does not necessarily mean permanent. Pain may be expected to continue for a limited recovery period without lasting for the rest of the person’s life.
The key legal distinction is certainty: Arkansas’s model instruction refers to future pain and suffering that is reasonably certain to occur. A merely possible or speculative concern about future discomfort is not the same as an expected future experience.
Why Is Pain and Suffering Different for Every Person?
Pain and suffering is different for every person because physical discomfort and emotional distress are subjective experiences. An injury’s medical name doesn’t fully describe how it feels or how it changes someone’s daily life.
People with the same diagnosis may experience different symptoms, levels of pain, recovery periods, and emotional responses. These differences can reflect a person’s age, overall health, physical condition, daily responsibilities, and usual activities.
For example, the same knee injury could affect 2 people differently:
- One person may experience pain mainly when climbing stairs or exercising.
- Another may have difficulty standing at work, caring for a child, sleeping comfortably, or completing routine household tasks.
Emotional responses also vary. One person may feel frustrated but remain confident during recovery, while another may develop fear, anxiety, isolation, or distress about losing independence.
Neither experience is automatically more real than the other. Pain and suffering doesn’t have to match another person’s symptoms or response to be meaningful. What matters is how the injury physically and emotionally affects the individual.
FAQs: Pain and Suffering
Pain from medical treatment may count as pain and suffering when the treatment is necessary because of the original injury. This can include discomfort associated with surgery, injections, wound care, physical therapy, rehabilitation, or medication side effects. Treatment-related pain may be temporary, recurring, or ongoing.
Yes, headaches may be a form of physical pain and suffering when they result from an injury. This may include constant headaches, recurring migraines, or pain triggered by light, sound, concentration, movement, or physical activity. A headache doesn’t have to be present at all times to cause physical suffering.
Insomnia and other sleep problems may reflect physical suffering, mental anguish, or both. Pain may prevent someone from finding a comfortable position, while anxiety, nightmares, or intrusive memories may interrupt sleep. The resulting fatigue and difficulty concentrating can further affect the person’s daily experience.
Fear of reinjury may be part of emotional suffering when it is connected to the original injury. A person may become afraid to drive, walk near traffic, return to work, exercise, or resume another activity. This fear may qualify as mental anguish when it meaningfully affects behavior or emotional well-being.
Yes. Children can experience physical pain, fear, anxiety, and other emotional distress even when they cannot describe those experiences as precisely as an adult. Arkansas Model Jury Instruction AMI 2213 specifically includes past and reasonably certain future pain, suffering, and mental anguish among the potential damages in a minor’s claim.
No. Pain and suffering may result from a temporary, recurring, long-term, or permanent injury. Permanence describes how long an injury or its effects are expected to last; it does not determine whether the person experienced physical pain or mental anguish. A temporary injury can still cause meaningful suffering during recovery.
Talk to Niblock Law Firm About How an Injury Has Affected You
Physical pain and emotional suffering can be deeply personal and difficult to describe in legal terms. Niblock Law Firm can listen to what you have experienced and explain how Arkansas law may apply to the physical, emotional, and everyday effects of your injury.
Our attorneys represent injured people in Fayetteville and throughout Northwest Arkansas. If another party may be responsible for your injury, we can review your circumstances and discuss your legal options without promising a particular result.
Contact Niblock Law Firm today to schedule a free consultation.