A spinal cord injury changes every part of life. Your pain and suffering deserves a clear voice.

Pain and suffering is the part of a spinal cord injury claim that covers harm beyond bills and paychecks. In New Mexico, it falls under non-economic damages. It can include physical pain, emotional distress, and the daily activities the injury took away.

This page explains how pain and suffering works in a New Mexico spinal cord injury case. It covers how juries work through damages, what evidence helps, and how fault rules and time limits can shape a claim. Every case is different, and past results do not predict a similar outcome.

What Pain and Suffering Means in a New Mexico Spinal Cord Injury Claim

Pain and suffering is compensation for physical pain and the mental and emotional effects of an injury. It is a non-economic damage. It doesn’t come from a receipt, a bill, or a pay stub.

Economic damages have a number you can point to. Medical bills and lost wages are examples. Non-economic damages describe how the injury changed your body, your mood, and your daily life. No one can set an exact price for those harms. The amount depends on the facts of each case.

A spinal cord injury often shows this kind of harm clearly. The spinal cord carries signals between the brain and the rest of the body. When it is hurt, movement, feeling, and control over parts of the body can change. Those changes can last for years and reach work, family, sleep, and hobbies. You can read more about the injury itself on our spinal cord injuries page.

Every case is different, and past results do not predict a similar outcome.

How New Mexico Juries Are Instructed on Damages

A New Mexico jury works through damages in steps. The comparative negligence instruction shows those steps clearly. It applies when a case involves shared fault.

First, the jury finds the total damages the injured person suffered. Second, the jury compares the negligence of the plaintiff and the defendant and sets percentages that add up to 100%. Third, the jury reduces the plaintiff’s total damages by the plaintiff’s percentage. That reduced number becomes the amount in the verdict. The UJI 13-2218 NMRA instruction sets out these steps.

The instruction has limits. It is used only when comparative negligence is an issue in the lawsuit and the court is submitting the case on a general verdict without special interrogatories. It also applies only where fault is not split among several defendants or non-parties.

Many people assume the first total they hear is the final number. The steps show why that isn’t always true. A fault percentage can lower the amount the jury awards. The evidence presented at trial shapes what the jury considers at each step.

Physical Pain and Suffering After a Spinal Cord Injury

Physical pain is often the first part of this claim people notice. Nerve pain can feel like burning or stabbing. Muscle spasms can come and go without warning. Some people feel pain in areas where feeling has changed.

Treatment adds its own pain. Surgery, hospital stays, physical therapy, and repeated procedures all cause discomfort. Each one adds to the physical harm a claim describes.

Loss of feeling or movement is part of the physical harm, too. When an injury changes how the body works, that change belongs in the story. A claim describes what the injured person can no longer do and what the body now has to endure.

How pain is proven matters. The strongest proof comes from the medical record. Treating doctors’ notes, imaging reports, pain-management records, and therapy notes show how severe the pain is and how long it lasts. Tell your providers about pain at every visit. Gaps in treatment can make the record harder to read.

Outcomes vary from person to person. Past results do not predict a similar outcome.

Emotional Distress and Loss of Enjoyment of Life

Emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life are the mental and daily-life parts of pain and suffering. A sudden injury often brings fear, anxiety, depression, and frustration. Many people also grieve the life they had before. Those feelings are real harms, and they can be part of a claim.

Loss of enjoyment of life covers what the injury takes away. That can include hobbies, travel, exercise, work, time with children, and close relationships.

There is a clear difference between saying “my life changed” and showing how it changed. The first is a general statement. The second names the change. For example, someone might write: “I used to coach my son’s soccer team. Now I need help getting to the sidelines.” That kind of detail shows what the loss looks like day to day. This example is only an illustration.

Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

What Evidence Supports Pain and Suffering Damages

The strongest evidence is a medical record that ties the injury to the crash, fall, or assault. The cause has to be a proximate cause of the injury. Under Herrera v. Quality Pontiac, a proximate cause produces the injury in a natural and continuous sequence. It does not have to be the only cause, the last cause, or the nearest one.

Helpful evidence includes:

• Medical records, treatment history, and rehabilitation notes.
• Physician statements that describe the injury and how it has progressed.
• A personal journal of pain levels, limits, and daily tasks, written close to the time of each entry.
• Statements from family, friends, coworkers, and caregivers who saw the changes.
• Vocational and life-care planning evidence, when future care or work limits are part of the case.

A common mistake is waiting too long to write things down. Memory fades. A journal kept over time can show the day-to-day effects more clearly than a single recollection.

How Pain and Suffering Fits Alongside Economic Damages

Pain and suffering usually sits next to economic damages in the same claim. Each category has its own place in the jury’s work.

Fault is the other piece. New Mexico follows pure comparative negligence. Under Scott v. Rizzo, a plaintiff who is partly at fault is not totally barred from recovery. The plaintiff’s share of fault reduces the damages instead.

Under NMSA § 41-3A-1, in causes of action to which several liability applies, a defendant who establishes that another’s fault is a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury is liable only for the portion of the total dollar damages equal to the ratio of that defendant’s fault to the total fault attributed to all persons, including plaintiffs, defendants and persons not party to the action. The statute preserves joint and several liability in listed situations, such as vicarious liability and strict liability for a defective product.

How these rules apply depends on the facts.

Time Limits to Keep in Mind After a Spinal Cord Injury

New Mexico’s statute sets a three-year period for an action for injury to a person. Under NMSA § 37-1-8, an action for an injury to the person or reputation of any person must be brought within three years.

Government defendants follow different rules. Under NMSA § 41-4-15, actions against a governmental entity or a public employee for torts are forever barred unless commenced within two years after the date of occurrence resulting in loss, injury or death; a minor under the full age of seven years has until his ninth birthday to file. Under NMSA § 41-4-16, a person who claims damages from the state or a local public body under the Tort Claims Act must present a written notice stating the time, place and circumstances of the loss or injury within ninety days after an occurrence giving rise to a claim for which immunity has been waived under the Tort Claims Act, to the office the statute names for that entity, and no suit may be maintained without that notice unless the governmental entity had actual notice of the occurrence, while the time for giving notice does not include up to ninety days during which the injured person is incapacitated from giving the notice by reason of injury; for a wrongful death claim, the notice may be presented by or on behalf of the personal representative of the deceased, any person claiming benefits of the proceeds of a wrongful death action, or the consular officer of a foreign country of which the deceased was a citizen, within six months after the date of the occurrence of the injury which resulted in the death, and no additional notice is needed if the deceased had already presented a notice that would have been sufficient had he lived.

The Tort Claims Act also sets limits on what a claim can recover. NMSA § 41-4-19 limits liability when a damages action is brought under the Tort Claims Act against a governmental entity, or against a public employee acting within the scope of the employee’s duties. The limits are $200,000 for each legally described real property for damage to or destruction of that real property arising out of a single occurrence; $300,000 for all past and future medical and medically related expenses arising out of a single occurrence; and $400,000 to any person for any number of claims arising out of a single occurrence for all damages other than real property damage and medical and medically related expenses, as permitted under the Tort Claims Act. The combined liability for the real property claims and those other-damages claims arising out of a single occurrence may not exceed $750,000. Judgments against these defendants also cannot include punitive damages or prejudgment interest.

When a clock starts can be a question of fact. Bring the date of the injury and your medical records to the initial consultation so the timeline can be reviewed against the details.

Talking With Josh Wood About Your Spinal Cord Injury Case

If a crash, fall, or assault left you with a spinal cord injury, you may be facing changes to how you move, work, and spend your time. Deciding whether to pursue a claim for those losses is a serious step.

Josh Wood is the responsible lawyer for this page. He is licensed in New Mexico and Arizona. You can reach El Gringo Law through its contact form.

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