“What is the point of a 350K cap on pain and suffering for someone who, through the fault of another has been forced to endure constant and unremitting pain for years and years that could have been avoided?”
I thought “constant and unremitting pain” would be a permanent or lifetime condition covered by compensatory damages which could include open-ended monthly payments and medical care for life.
I found a couple of different takes on this issue if you get time:
http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2007/12/arbino-v-johnson-johnson-ohio-tort.html
The compensatory damages cover the actual medicals and the economic losses that are more easily measurable, usually consisting of a calculation of so much per year in lost earnings for a person whose ability to work is destroyed. These are what we call the “specials.” As a practical matter the medical costs usually are subrogated to the actual suppliers or health insurance carrier who paid the providers. The victim does not get to keep that money; it simply goes to those who provided the treatment and care. Let us take the classic case of a virtuoso violinist whose hand is severed or smashed. The earnings are measurable and can be shown economically; the medicals will be won and reimbursed, assuming it is a valid case. But the destruction of the entire purpose and meaning of the life is the hard to measure part.