Pain, suffering and lost wages are typically requested in a person injury lawsuit. These amounts will vary based on the individual circumstances, the severity of the injury as well as the evidence that is presented in the court to the jury. In most areas the pain and suffering amounts are capped or restricted for specific types of personal injury cases such as medical malpractice.

Personal injury cases are bread-and-butter to many practicing lawyers, and the best of them are experts on the process of getting you a decent settlement. It's always better to negotiate your case with a capable lawyer than to try to do it alone, because you may not know what your claim is worth.

The first thing you should do when searching for a personal injury lawyer is to consult your friends, family, and co-workers; they can give you leads and frank assessments of lawyers they've used. Just because a lawyer on TV has a lot of testimonials doesn't mean those "clients" aren't actors.