Loss of enjoyment of life is a type of legal damage for which you can recover financial compensation in a personal injury claim. That financial compensation would be for your inability to do enjoyable things due to your injuries. It is especially common for severe injuries that leave you with a disability.
| Economic damages that are easy to state in a dollar amount | Noneconomic damages that cannot be easily stated in a dollar amount |
| Medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and property damage | Physical pain, mental anguish, emotional distress, loss of life’s enjoyment, and loss of consortium for family members and loved ones |
Examples of the loss of enjoyment of life
Loss of life’s enjoyment is just one of the ways that you can suffer if someone else’s negligent conduct has caused you harm. Because you would not have lost these enjoyments had it not been for the accident, you are entitled to compensation for them. Just a few examples of the loss of enjoyment of life include:
- a musician losing several fingers in a work-related accident and no longer being able to play their instrument,
- an incident of medical malpractice leaving someone unable to have children,
- someone losing their sense of smell from an undisclosed side effect of a medication, and
- an avid jogger becoming paralyzed after a car accident and unable to do any recreational activities at all.
These include specific mental and physical activities that you may have enjoyed doing in the past, but which you either cannot do anymore or can only do in a lesser capacity. They also include more general enjoyable things, like a person’s ability to use their senses and perceive the world.
Types of claims where it is common
The personal injury lawyers at our law firm have found that recovering damages for the loss of life’s enjoyment is especially common after serious injuries that leave the injured person debilitated. These can occur in any sort of personal injury claim. However, they are most likely to happen in personal injury cases involving:
- medical malpractice,
- workplace accidents,
- car accidents, particularly motorcycle or truck accidents,
- defective medication, and
- dog bites.
These types of cases are more likely to involve the types of physical injuries that deprive you of life’s enjoyment.
Injuries with high loss of enjoyment of life damages
The severity of the injury tends to drive the amount of compensation you deserve under personal injury law. The types of injuries that produce high damages for an accident victim’s loss of life’s enjoyment are generally both:
- severe, and
Our personal injury attorneys have found that the following specific injuries tend to require lots of compensation for the loss of the enjoyment of life:
- sensory loss, like blindness,
- spinal cord injuries that lead to paralysis, particularly if it is total and not just in one body part,
- dismemberment,
- severe disfigurement,
- traumatic brain injuries that leave you with a cognitive impairment, or
- burn injuries that leave such extensive scarring that you find it uncomfortable to be in public or at social events.
The compensation the injured party needs can be especially high if these injuries:
- are permanent,
- prevent you from living an independent life,
- cause chronic pain, and/or
- keep you from doing activities that you enjoyed doing before the accident, like playing a sport.
How to estimate damages for loss of life’s enjoyment
The loss of life’s enjoyment is a type of noneconomic damage for pain and suffering. According to a California appeals court:
“One of the most difficult tasks imposed on a fact finder is to determine the amount of money the plaintiff is to be awarded as compensation for pain and suffering. The inquiry is inherently subjective and not easily amenable to concrete measurement.”[1]
However, one way to get a sense of what would be a fair amount to cover all of your pain and suffering, including your loss of life’s enjoyment, is the multiplier method.
First, you add up all of your economic damages. These are your lost wages, property damage, medical bills, and any other loss from the accident that can easily be stated in a dollar amount.
Second, you would estimate your noneconomic losses by choosing a number between 1 and 5. The number is based on how much the accident has impaired your quality of life and well-being. If you made a full recovery in just a few months, it would be a 1. If you suffered a catastrophic injury that will leave you with a permanent and serious disability and that will keep you from doing many daily activities, it may be a 5. You multiply your economic damages by this number.
Finally, you add this estimate of your noneconomic losses to your economic losses.
This number reflects what you likely deserve in a settlement offer. It includes all of your losses, not just those in your loss of enjoyment of life claim. It can be reduced, sometimes substantially, if:
- you were partially at-fault for the accident that hurt you, and/or
- there is not enough insurance coverage to pay the full amount.
Insurance companies are going to stress these factors in order to reduce the monetary value of their settlement offer. Injury victims should be prepared to receive a lowball offer at first. Getting legal representation and preparing for a personal injury lawsuit by gathering your medical records and arranging for expert testimony can make the insurance company make a better offer.
Legal Citations:
[1] Pearl v. City of Los Angeles, 36 Cal.App.5th 475, 491 (2019).
