Loss of Enjoyment of Life and General Damages

Loss of enjoyment of life is one half of what general damages pay for. The other half is pain. A court fixing a non-pecuniary award is answering what the injury has taken out of the plaintiff’s days, not only how much it hurts.

Pain and Lost Enjoyment Are One Award

Canadian courts do not itemise pain separately from loss of amenities. Both go into a single non-pecuniary figure, and the functional approach asks what sum provides reasonable solace for the whole of it. Two plaintiffs reporting the same pain can receive different awards because one of them lost more of their life to it. The method is set out in how courts assess general damages.

What Loss of Enjoyment of Life Covers

It covers the activities that stopped and the ones that changed. Work that was also an identity, sport, music, gardening, travel, the ability to lift a child, unbroken sleep and the character of a marriage all count. Nothing is too ordinary to be part of the claim. Courts have given weight to losses as small as no longer being able to sit through a hockey game.

The Evidence Comes From People Who Knew You Before

Medical evidence proves the injury. It does not prove the life. Family members, friends, coaches and employers who can describe the plaintiff before and after supply that part, and their evidence is often what moves the figure. Photographs, club records and work histories corroborate it. Where the plaintiff’s own account is the only evidence the award tends to be conservative, for the reasons in the medical records and credibility chapter.

Overstating It Costs More Than Understating It

A plaintiff who claims to do nothing at all invites the investigation described in the surveillance and social media chapter. An accurate account of a restricted life is far stronger than an absolute one, because it survives contact with the evidence. Reported decisions on non-pecuniary awards are searchable on CanLII.

Where This Head Is Largest

Loss of enjoyment of life dominates the award in brain injury and scarring claims, where the medical grade of the injury and its effect on a life diverge most. The firm builds that evidence on car accident files, with no fee unless the claim resolves.