Quality of Life
Sustaining an injury in an accident or other personal injury incident can result in significant economic damages for the injured party. The person may also experience pain and suffering because of the other party’s negligence and wrongdoing. In some cases, an injury can cause a decrease in the injured person’s quality of life.
If an injury changes your quality of life, you could be entitled to compensation from the party who caused your injury. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you pursue a claim against the at-fault.
What Do We Mean by Quality of Life?
To define quality of life, we must look at the person’s emotional, physical, and mental health. The World Health Organization defines quality of life as your perception of your position in life relative to your culture and value systems in relation to your expectations, goals, concerns, and standards.
The term quality of life includes more than your health care or health-related quality of life issues. It includes the dissatisfaction and satisfaction with the overall enjoyment of the quality of lives lived by people.
Some people may enjoy a high quality of life measured by conventional standards, such as wealth and living conditions. However, other people may measure their quality of life by their personal relationships, activities, and attainment of personal goals.
How Can an Injury or Accident Impact a Person’s Quality of Life?
Your ability to perform activities you enjoy, care for yourself, and care for your family is essential for a high quality of life. Unfortunately, an accident or injury can significantly impact your ability to perform the necessary functions of everyday life.
Decreases in your quality of life might occur when you sustain a catastrophic injury or permanent disability. Injuries that often impact a person’s quality of life include, but are not limited to:
- Losing your hearing or vision
- Being wholly or partially paralyzed because of a spinal cord injury
- A traumatic brain injury that causes cognitive, physical, and emotional impairments
- Sustaining a severe burn or significant disfigurement
- Losing a limb and amputations
- Sustaining injuries to internal organs that result in loss of bodily functions
Some injuries have lifelong impacts on the injured person and their family members. For example, the injury may impact their ability to work, socialize, and maintain personal relationships with friends and family members.
Examples of ways that an injury can negatively impact your quality of life include:
- You are unable to care for your children
- You cannot perform activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing, and feeding yourself
- Loss of companionship, society, and affection with your spouse and other people
- Embarrassment and anxiety about scarring, disfigurement, and disability
- Inability to participate in social activities, sports, and recreational activities
- Inability to continue with your career or work
- Cannot conceive a child or have intimate relations
- Experience chronic physical pain and suffering
- Ongoing emotional and mental suffering, including PTSD, chronic anxiety, depression, etc.
Each person experiences an accident and injury differently. Diminished quality of life depends on the injury and the person’s life before the accident. Valuing diminished quality of life for a personal injury case can be challenging.
Factors That Impact the Value of a Diminished Quality of Life Claim
Diminished quality of life claims fall under the category of non-economic damages. Decreases in your quality of life are not financial losses, but the damages are just as real as medical bills and lost wages. However, valuing these damages can be difficult.
Juries, injury lawyers, and insurance companies consider numerous factors when determining the value of a diminished quality of life claim. Some factors that could affect the value of your claim include:
- Your age and overall health
- The attempts you make to mitigate the impact injuries have on your quality of life and attempts at improving the quality of life after the accident
- Your social standing and personality
- Your appearance before and after the injury or accident
- The type of injuries and the severity of those injuries
- Your work experience and education
- Eyewitness testimony about your quality of life before and after the injury
- How ongoing medical treatments and health care impact your quality of life
- The activities you cannot perform after the accident
- Your doctor’s prognosis and evaluation
The amount of money you might receive for a diminished quality of life claim depends on numerous factors. A common way of calculating the value of the claim is the multiplier method.
Your economic damages are multiplied by a number between 1.5 and five. The multiplier used to calculate the value of non-economic damages increases as the severity of your injuries and the impact on your quality of life increases.
Personal injury lawyers work to maximize the amount you receive as compensation for the pain and suffering experienced because of another person’s negligence and wrongdoing.
Contact Us for a Free Consultation with an Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer
A personal injury can significantly diminish your quality of life. Our Atlanta personal injury attorneys work to recover compensation for all damages sustained because of another party’s negligence and wrongdoing. Call us today to schedule your free consultation with one of our injury lawyers in Atlanta, GA.