What Is Included in Diminished Quality of Life Damages?
Compensation for diminished quality of life includes more than restitution for your physical pain.
It should include all of the ways your entire life has been affected by your injuries, as no amount of compensation will make up for the reduced quality of life you experienced due to your injuries.
Unfortunately, there is no way to accurately quantify these losses, as they affect each person’s life differently. For this reason, it is essential for your attorney to go over, in detail, how your life has been affected. This way, you can recover maximum compensation for your damages.
What Compensation is Available for My Diminished Quality of Life Claim?
Compensation for reduced quality of life often includes restitution for your:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Humiliation
- Anticipation or fear
- Excessive worry
- Indignity and shame
- Damage to your reputation
- Loss of an organ or limb
- Losing the ability to have children
- Disfigurement, mutilation, skin scarring, or deformities
- Disgrace
- Loss of companionship and love
- Loss of affection from someone else
These are only a few of the damages that encompass diminished quality of life. If you are no longer able to participate in activities you once found joy in, you may have the right to compensation for your damages.
How Are Diminished Quality of Life Damages Calculated?
Since there is no set value on diminished quality of life, you may wonder how your lawyer will accurately calculate the value of these losses.
Every case must be evaluated individually to ascertain what your diminished quality of life is worth.
Some of the factors that your personal injury attorney may take into consideration include:
- Your age
- Your work history
- The severity of your injuries
- Any effort you made to mitigate your losses
- The expected future impact of your injuries
- Your educational background
- Where are you live
- Whether you share fault for your injuries
- Any witness testimony
- Your appearance
- Whether you were insured at the time of the accident
- Whether your attorney has proven liability for your damages
- Whether the liable party accidentally or intentionally cause your injuries
- Your socioeconomic status
Proving Diminished Quality of Life Damages in Your Case
Since diminished quality of life can impact each person differently, it will be important to present evidence showing the jury and judge that you are entitled to the compensation you seek.
Your lawyer will be prepared to introduce witness affidavits, expert testimony, and other evidence to place a financial value on your damages.
One of the ways experts can calculate reduced quality of life is by determining the amount of money companies spend on safety equipment and devices designed to reduce injury or death and multiplying that number by the percentage of reduced quality of life you have experienced.
Alternatively, your lawyer could use the per diem or multiplier method to calculate the value of your non-economic damages.
Diminished Quality of Life Damages Aren’t Punitive
It should be noted that compensation for diminished quality of life is not a punitive loss. This means you are not being compensated for this loss as a way of punishing the defendant for their conduct. Punitive damages are not a loss you are entitled to recover.
Instead, the court systems imposed them to set a punishment beyond the compensatory damages you are entitled to repayment for.
You are entitled to compensation for your diminished quality of life, but you are not necessarily entitled to compensation for punitive damages unless the court system finds the defendant’s actions intolerable, grossly negligent, or reprehensible.
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