Describing the pain you experience when serious injuries prevent you from enjoying certain aspects of life is nearly impossible. Your pain may seem even greater if your injuries resulted from someone else’s negligence. Nothing can change the past. However, if you sustained injuries in Illinois because someone else was negligent, you can seek compensation accordingly. You can pursue money for your loss of enjoyment of life with a personal injury claim.
What Is Loss of Enjoyment of Life Compensation?
In the context of a personal injury claim, enjoyment of life refers to a person’s ability to enjoy various rewarding activities they engaged in prior to the accident. An injured party may be eligible for loss of enjoyment of life compensation if their injuries prevent them from participating in or getting the same level of enjoyment that they used to from such activities.
What Types of Injuries Can Result in Loss of Enjoyment of Life?
Injuries that result in loss of function of a body part may cause loss of enjoyment of life. So can injuries that significantly affect a person’s mental abilities. Examples include:
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Paralysis injuries
- Amputations
- Medical malpractice injuries
- Injuries resulting in loss of vision/hearing/etc.
- Injuries resulting in severe/debilitating pain
That’s not an exhaustive list. If an injury negatively impacts your quality of life, you might be entitled to compensation for loss of enjoyment of life. Whether this is an option depends on whether your injuries prevent you from enjoying your usual activities.
What Does Loss of Enjoyment of Life Look Like?
An example may help you better understand when a person could obtain money for their loss of enjoyment of life.
Perhaps fitness and outdoor activities are major components of someone’s lifestyle. They enjoy participating in sports and other such activities regularly.
Suppose this individual sustains serious injuries in a truck accident that was caused by the truck driver’s distracted driving. They are now paralyzed and can no longer participate in the activities they once enjoyed. They could pursue compensation for this loss in their claim or lawsuit against the at-fault party.
Seeking Loss of Enjoyment of Life Compensation in Illinois
Some negligent parties who cause injury aren’t insured. Insurers may not offer injured parties fair settlements. An injured person may file a lawsuit to seek damages in court in these circumstances.
Damages are the money a judge or jury awards an injured party in a personal injury lawsuit. The damages will cover a person’s economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses are those that have a specific dollar amount attached, like medical bills or lost wages. Non-economic losses are subjective losses, like pain and suffering. These losses have no specific monetary amount attached, but they have value.
How to Prove You Sustained a Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Proving a plaintiff deserves to receive certain economic damages may be relatively straightforward. An injured party needs to gather evidence proving their injuries resulted from negligence. They must then add up their relevant expenses. These may include medical bills, lost wages, personal property damage, etc.
Proving an injured party deserves loss of enjoyment of life compensation may be more complex. Potential forms of evidence in such a case may include:
- An injured party’s testimony
- Testimony of family members and friends
- Testimony of doctors
- Medical records showing how injuries prevent a victim from engaging in certain activities
That’s not an exhaustive list of potential evidence. A personal injury lawyer may review a case and find there are other case-specific forms of evidence they can use to show that the injured party suffered a loss of enjoyment of life.
Calculating Loss of Enjoyment of Life Damages
Legal professionals use various methods when calculating the value of non-economic losses. Your lawyer can discuss which method may be more appropriate in your situation.
The multiplier method is one option. The multiplier method involves evaluating the severity of a person’s losses. A person using this method may assign a value between 1.5 and five to someone’s losses. The more severe their loss of enjoyment of life, the higher the number.
Next, they’d add up all a person’s economic losses. They would then multiply the number they chose for their multiplier by the total economic losses. The result would be how much compensation a person could receive for noneconomic losses.
When Is Loss of Enjoyment of Life Compensation Not Available in Illinois?
There are potential instances when you may not be eligible for loss of enjoyment of life compensation in Illinois. This may be the case even when you’re eligible for other forms of compensation.
Maybe you’re an employee who sustained injuries in a work-related accident. You can file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits if so.
According to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, workers’ comp in Illinois only covers certain economic losses resulting from a workplace illness or injury. It doesn’t offer compensation for non-economic losses like loss of enjoyment of life.
That’s not to say you could never seek compensation for loss of enjoyment of life in these circumstances. You might have this option if a workplace accident resulted from the negligence of someone other than your employer.
Maybe you sustained spinal cord injuries in a car accident while driving for work. Perhaps someone else caused the wreck. If so, you might have the option of filing a third-party claim with their insurance company. You can file this claim separately from your claim for workers’ compensation benefits. With a third-party claim, you could seek compensation for loss of enjoyment of life damages.
Contact an Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Knowing you deserve loss of enjoyment of life compensation isn’t the same as knowing how to prove you deserve it. Luckily, this isn’t a process you have to navigate by yourself. Our Illinois personal injury lawyers from JJ Legal are on hand to help you pursue the full amount of compensation you deserve. Get started today by contacting us online or calling us at 312-200-2000 for a free case review.
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