If you suffer certain injuries in a car accident, some of the costs will be clear. For instance, maybe you suffered a spinal cord injury and you have documentation of all of your medical bills. You can also calculate the long-term care needs that you’re going to have moving forward. You can seek compensation for all of these costs if they were caused by the negligence of another driver.
But for you, this injury may not just be a financial consideration. It may have changed your life in deeper and more substantial ways.
For example, perhaps you are a young parent, but your back injury leaves you with lingering pain that means you can no longer play with your children. Or maybe you were an avid rock climber or a cyclist, but you can’t participate in these activities any longer. You’ve lost your ability to enjoy your hobbies, you have chronic pain every day, and this has taken away from your enjoyment of your own life. Can you seek compensation?
Compensation may be possible
Yes, you can sometimes seek compensation for the loss of enjoyment in life. This is considered a non-economic damage, along with things like loss of consortium, emotional distress and pain and suffering.
The challenge, often, is determining how much compensation is necessary. You don’t have documentation like you do with your medical bills. How much money are you owed for the fact that you can’t play with your children or enjoy your hobbies? This can become a very complicated scenario, and it’s important for you to understand exactly what legal steps you can take at this time.