This article discusses the evaluation of pain and disability and reviews definitions, statistics, guidelines, and models of disability. The authors review patient evaluation, including history, physical examination, and a questionnaire, and specialized testing such as functional capacity evaluation and rating scales. Current systems for compensating patients who have pain, including Workers’ Compensation, private insurance, Social Security, and the Veterans’ Administration, also are presented. Resources used for this article include several referenced papers on the evaluation of chronic pain and disability, the American Medical Association Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, and various handouts and publications over the years from the Social Security and Veterans’ Administration.