What Is Quality of Life?

Car accidents, slips and falls, and other types of personal injury incidents can lead to considerable medical expenses and painful injuries. These impacts can drastically decrease your quality of life, which is a key measure in determining the value of your damages in a personal injury case. 

An experienced personal injury lawyer at McMinn Personal Injury Lawyers can handle your claim and fight for the compensation that fairly acknowledges the severity of the ordeal. Keep reading to learn more about quality of life as it relates to personal injury law, and contact us today.

Damages in a Personal Injury Case 

Tort or personal injury cases seek to make the victim whole after they’ve been harmed by someone else. The court’s goal is to return them to the situation they were in before the accident. 

While it’s not possible to erase the injury, the court tries to award an amount of compensation that will put them as close to the position they were in immediately before the accident as possible by awarding damages to them against the at-fault party. Damages in Texas personal injury cases generally fall under the following two categories:

Economic Damages 

Economic damages in Texas compensate victims for “actual economic or pecuniary loss,” such as:

• Medical expenses
• Doctor’s visits
• Lost wages
• Property damage
• Costs to renovate a vehicle or home to accommodate a new disability 

Economic damages include past and current damages, as well as those that are reasonably anticipated in the future, such as loss of future earnings, lost or reduced future earning capacity, and future medical expenses.

Non-Economic Damages 

Non-economic damages compensate accident victims for losses that are more difficult to quantify, such as:

• Physical pain, suffering, and discomfort, 
• Mental anguish
• Emotional pain and suffering
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Physical impairment
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of society
• Loss of quality of life
• Injury to reputation 
• Inconvenience 

Non-economic damages can also include future anticipated losses, such as future pain and suffering. 

How Quality of Life Affects Your Damages Claim

Quality of life is a subjective measure of a person’s life and can include facets of their:

• Physical health
• Mental health
• Material comfort
• Personal relationships
• The sense of social belonging
• Safety
• The ability to engage in and enjoy daily life
• Level of independence 

Your lawyer can work to gather evidence to establish your quality of life before the accident and how it changed after the accident. Your lawyer might use testimony from your loved ones or your medical team, or evidence such as your personal journal, to demonstrate how your quality of life has decreased.

Quality of Life and the Value of Your Personal Injury Case

Insurance companies, judges, and juries may consider various factors when determining how much compensation to award that would appropriately compensate the victim for their losses. 

Some of these factors that can be related to quality of life may include:

• Recovery period: Not all injuries have the same effect on accident victims. The longer your recovery period, the more your quality of life is likely to be affected, and the more you stand to claim for your non-economic damages.
• The effect of your injuries on your job: Injuries that result in a permanent disability that causes you to leave the workforce can be worth more than those that only minimally affect your career. Reducing or losing your ability to work can also significantly impact your quality of life.
• Your age: Younger victims may be awarded more money because their future earning capacity may be negatively impacted by the accident, as they have more working years ahead of them than older workers. However, older workers may have higher salaries, so this can affect the value of their claim. 
• Any scarring or disfigurement: Scars and disfiguring injuries can negatively impact your self-esteem and overall quality of life, so this information can also factor into your case.
• How the injury affects your life: Personal injury accidents can significantly impact your overall quality of life by disrupting your regular routine, incurring substantial medical bills and lost income, and affecting your personal relationships.

Insurance adjusters and jurors walk into a case with their own preconceived notions about what different losses are worth or how they would feel if they were in the victim’s position. An experienced personal injury attorney can work to show why your case is more valuable than the average personal injury settlement.

Contact Our Austin Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation

The experienced legal team at McMinn Personal Injury Lawyers can help explore all aspects of your claim for damages, including how the accident has affected your quality of life. Call our Austin personal injury lawyers today to schedule a free consultation to learn more about the potential value of your claim.

Our team works on a contingency fee basis, which means you won’t pay us anything out of pocket, and we only get paid if we win your case. We can discuss this arrangement more during your free consultation.