Your quality of life refers to your mental health, physical condition, and emotional well-being. However, the term “quality of life” goes beyond your health-related quality of life. It includes your overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the conditions under which you live. It measures your overall enjoyment of life and quality of living.
When another party causes you to sustain an injury, you can pursue a personal injury claim for damages. Damages may include economic damages, such as out-of-pocket expenses, lost wages, and medical bills. However, damages also include non-economic damages.
Non-economic damages include the pain and suffering you experience from the incident and your injuries. Diminished quality of life claims are included as part of your non-economic damages.
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What Does Quality of Life Represent?
Your quality of life depends on numerous factors. However, it generally refers to your ability to perform tasks and your overall well-being and contentment in life. Decreases in a person’s quality of life may occur when they sustain a traumatic injury resulting in disabling conditions.
Injuries that could diminish a person’s quality of life include but are not limited to:
- Losing your hearing or vision
- Being wholly or partially paralyzed after a spinal cord injury
- Sustaining permanent brain damage from a traumatic brain injury
- Severe burns that cause substantial scarring
- Loss of limbs and amputations
- Significant disfigurement
- Injuries that cause damage to internal organs or loss of bodily functions
Catastrophic injuries often change the way a person lives. They often impact a person’s life forever in many different ways, including their ability to work, socialize, and care for themselves and others.
Determining an Individual’s Quality of Life for a Personal Injury Case
An accident’s impact on someone’s life depends on numerous factors. The severity and type of injury can directly affect the person’s daily activities.
Examples of how a traumatic injury could decrease a person’s quality of life include:
- Being unable to perform physical activities because of an amputation or other impairment
- Being unable to perform activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing, eating, etc.
- Embarrassment or anxiety caused by disfigurement, scarring, or deformity
- Anxiety about a permanent impairment or disability
- Inability to care for children or loved ones
- Being unable to engage in intimate relations or conceive a child
- Inability to participate in sports and recreational activities
- Physical pain and suffering caused by permanent impairments
- Ongoing mental and emotional distress, including chronic depression, severe anxiety, PTSD, etc.
- Feelings of guilt for surviving if another person died in the accident
- Loss of companionship and affection with other individuals
Each person experiences life differently. Therefore, quality of life is subjective. It depends on the person’s activities and conditions of life before the accident or injury.
The decrease in quality of life may be different for individuals who have suffered the same injury. Each case must be examined based on the specific facts and circumstances to determine the impact of an injury on the person’s quality of life.
What Factors Affect the Value of a Claim for Diminished Quality of Life?
The compensation awarded for diminished quality of life depends on the facts of the case. The more significant the impact on the person’s life, the higher the claim’s value. However, it could be difficult to define the quality of life before an accident.
Attorneys, insurance companies, judges, and jurors may use numerous factors to determine an injury’s impact on someone’s quality of life.
Factors to consider when valuing a decrease in quality of life claim include:
- The person’s age and overall health
- Attempts to mitigate the impact of the injury and improve the quality of life after the injury
- The appearance of the person before and after an injury
- Education and work experience
- The activities a person cannot perform due to the injury
- The need for ongoing healthcare and how treatments impact the person’s overall life
- The severity and type of injuries
- The person’s social standing and personality
- The doctor’s prognosis
- Witness testimony regarding the person’s quality of life
Jurors might also consider disputes related to fault and allegations of comparative fault. The type of negligence may also be considered, such as driving under the influence or distracted driving.
How Do You Calculate the Value of a Diminished Quality of Life Claim?
The amount of money you receive for diminished quality of life depends on the facts of the case. There is not a specific formula used to calculate non-economic damages. People with a high quality of life might receive more compensation for injuries that permanently decrease their quality of life.
However, many insurance companies and courts use a multiplier method using the total economic damages multiplied by a number between 1.5 and five to calculate non-economic damages. Generally, the multiplier increases as the severity of the injury increases. Injuries that have a more significant impact on the person’s life justify higher multipliers.
Contact a Tampa Personal Injury Lawyer For Help With a Diminished Quality of Life Claim
If you’ve been injured in an accident, you deserve to be compensated for your injuries and damages, including diminished quality of life. Contact a Tampa personal injury attorney to help you file a lawsuit to recover damages. An experienced attorney will obtain maximum compensation for your injury claim.
