Quality of Life

If a serious injury has changed the way you live, Florida law allows you to seek compensation for those losses, not just your medical bills.

Legally, these are called non-economic damages, and they cover what cannot be put on a receipt: the pain you wake up with every morning, the activities you can no longer do, the strain placed on your relationships, and the emotional weight that follows an injury long after the physical wound has healed.

What Falls Under Quality of Life Damages

Quality-of-life damages go by several names depending on the context, such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, mental anguish, and loss of consortium. They are all trying to capture the real-world impact on the person behind the injury.

Common examples include:

• Chronic pain or discomfort that affects your ability to sleep, work, or move through daily life
• Loss of the ability to participate in hobbies, sports, or activities that were part of your routine before the accident
• Depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress that developed after the injury
• Strain on your marriage or close relationships because of your physical or emotional condition
• The loss of independence that comes with a serious or permanent disability
• Disfigurement or scarring that affects how you see yourself and how you move through the world

These are not abstract categories. They are the daily reality for people who have been seriously hurt, and they are compensable under Florida law.

Loss of Consortium

Loss of consortium is a related non-economic claim that a spouse or close family member may bring on their own behalf. If your injury has deprived your spouse of companionship, affection, or intimacy, or has prevented you from being present for your children in the way you were before, those losses belong to them as a separate legal claim alongside yours.

Florida courts recognize loss of consortium as a real and compensable harm, and it is part of the full picture we build when representing seriously injured clients and their families.

How Quality of Life Is Proved in Court

Unlike a hospital bill, you cannot hand a jury a receipt for pain. That does not mean it goes unrecognized, but it does mean the way it is documented and presented matters.

Evidence used to support quality of life claims typically includes:

• Medical records and physician testimony about the long-term nature of the injury
• Mental health evaluations or treatment records documenting depression, anxiety, or PTSD
• Personal journals or testimony from the injured person about how daily life has changed
• Testimony from spouses, family members, or close friends who have witnessed the change
• Before-and-after comparisons showing activities, hobbies, or work that the person can no longer do
• Life care plans prepared by experts who outline the long-term consequences of a permanent injury

Insurance adjusters are trained to minimize these damages. They may point to gaps in treatment, suggest the limitations are exaggerated, or offer a low early settlement before the full scope of the injury is known. How this evidence is built and presented directly determines what you recover.

Quality of Life in Workers’ Compensation Cases

Florida workers’ compensation operates differently from a personal injury lawsuit. Under Florida Statutes § 440.015, workers’ comp is a no-fault system designed to cover medical expenses and a portion of lost wages, but it does not include pain-and-suffering or quality-of-life damages in the traditional sense.

This is one of the most important distinctions injured workers need to understand. If a third party, meaning someone other than your employer, contributed to your injury, you may have a separate personal injury claim outside of workers’ comp, where quality of life damages can be pursued. A workplace injury caused by defective equipment, a negligent contractor, or an unsafe property owner may open that door.

How Quality of Life Damages Are Calculated

There is no formula written into Florida law that tells a jury exactly how much chronic pain is worth. Under Florida Statutes § 768.74, courts have the authority to review damages awards and adjust them if they fall outside a reasonable range given the evidence presented. In practice, the value of quality-of-life damages depends on the severity of the injury, the expected duration of the effects, the injured person’s age, and the extent to which the impact has been documented.

Younger plaintiffs with permanent injuries typically receive higher quality-of-life awards because the injury will follow them for more decades. A 35-year-old who can no longer coach their child’s sports team, sleep through the night, or return to work they found meaningful has suffered a different magnitude of loss than someone closer to retirement.

Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule under Florida Statutes § 768.81 applies to non-economic damages the same way it applies to economic ones. If you are found partially at fault for the accident, your quality of life award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover at all. Defense teams in serious injury cases frequently try to assign fault to the injured person precisely because it reduces what they owe across every category of damages, including pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. 

Our Florida Personal Injury Attorneys Take the Full Picture Seriously

When someone is seriously hurt, the number on a medical bill does not tell the whole story. Smith, Feddeler & Smith, P.A., has built cases around the real impact of injuries on people’s lives for years, and we are not in this to reach a quick settlement that leaves you short. Insurance companies know we take cases all the way to trial when that is what it takes, and that affects how they come to the table.

If you want to talk through what your injury has taken from you, call us at (863) 355-4204 or contact us online for a free case evaluation.

Office Location

Lakeland

832 Florida Avenue South
Lakeland, FL 33801

(863) 688-7766

Brandon

202 E Brandon Blvd. Suite 107
Brandon, FL 33511

(863) 688-7766

Kissimmee

1101 Miranda Lane
Ste1331, Kissimmee, FL 34741

(863) 688-7766

Tampa

100 S Ashley Drive
Suite 600, Tampa, FL 33602

(863) 688-7766

Orlando

4700 Millenia Blvd
Orlando,FL 32839

(863) 688-7766

Clearwater

13575 58th St North #200
Clearwater, FL 33760

(863) 688-7766

$1,200,000.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked as a tree guy and a giant limb fell on him. Claimant developed CRPS and ended up wheelchair bound. Our firm was successful in obtaining many benefits to the Claimant prior to settlement, including multiple home modifications, wheelchair ramps, authorization of medical specialist, and implantation of a spinal cord stimulator.

$350,000.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked as a bus driving and during an evacuation she jumped off the bus causing her to fall resulting in a serious back injury.

$269,671.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked performing clerical type job in an office. She was asked to carry a box down stairs when she slipped and fell down the flight of stairs injuring her head, neck and lefts arm / wrist / hand.

$220,100.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked for a temp service. He was helping to unload a trailer when his foot went through a board on the floor of the trailer causing his to fall, shattering his pelvis, and causing serious injury to his back, hip and head.

$1,223,423.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked as a selector / forklift driver. This case involved a specific injury to her right leg / knee. She continued to work which resulted in repetitive and cumulative trauma to the right knee and CRPS.

$630,000.00
Workers’ Compensation

Claimant worked for a transport company. One day he was forced to get under a trailer and while he was lifting and twisting, the Claimant injured his back and knee, which was left untreated until he retained representation and filed Petitions for Benefits. Unfortunately, the severity or the injury coupled with the delay in treatment caused the Claimant to developed CRPS.