How much does 'mental anguish' cost anyway?

[Orion283]

Sort of a writing question but also just a general ponderance. I'm signing up for this doodle (http://www.ejury.com/jurors_signup.html) where you're paid to be part of a pool of practice-jurors to help attorneys better organize your cases. In the form you need to fill out what you think the payments should be in the event of a judgement one way or another, and aside from the obvious medical fees I have no idea what to put in some of these boxes. How do you judge how much stuff someone would have to buy to feel better about a broken leg?

[MichaelB]

That's a tough opne. Usually it's dcided case-by-case, I would really hesitate before putting a blanket 'this is how much' payment on t. I mean, 'mental anguish' differs from person to person. A single mum working two jobs will be much more mentally anguished from, say, a broken leg, than a living-with-parents 30-year-old who has a part time job at a second-hand bookstore. So it's not really fair to apply a single blanket payment to any sort of condition, individual circumstances have to be considered for each plaintiff, in my decision. I also depends on the severity and intention of the defendant. Was it a malicious attack, or an act of negligence? Intentional, or accidental? These things really do matter when it comes to payment for 'mental anguish'.

[KeinesV]

It depends on how much the lawyer costs.

[AXJ]

Yeah, I noticed that in my workplace 'death & dismemberment' insurance, they specified how much losing a finger was worth (with index and thumb both being more valuable), how much primary hand, secondary hand, foot, leg, eye, both eyes, becoming a paraplegic, quadriplegic, etc was worth, and I sort of wondered who made those decisions.