Legal Dictionary
There are a plethora of legal terms involved in your case. Our legal dictionary helps define terms that can become confusing from A-Z.
Life Expectancy
The length of time a person is expected to live based upon factors such as: age, gender, health, etc. To prove life expectancy in insurance claims and sometime in court, life expectancy will be based on actuarial tables or by offering proof from economists, life planners or other expert witnesses.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
A category of damages based upon a person’s reduced ability to participate in the activities or pleasures of life that were formerly enjoyed.
Mitigating Circumstances
Circumstances, that do not negate a defendant’s actions entirely, but show that show a defendant may have had grounds for acting or behaving in a certain manner.
Modified work
Your old job, with changes made to accomodate a disability or injury. If your doctor tells you that you are not able to perform the same job function and return to work, your employer is encouraged to offer modified work instead of displacement or vocational rehab benefits.
Negligence
Negligence is not acting in a careful manner. The legal standard is a “failure to exercise the degree of care a reasonably prudent person would use in the same situation.” If a plaintiff is able to prove a defendant acted negligently to cause an injury, the plaintiff can recover damages.
Negligence Per Se
If a defendant is required by law to do something that they fail to do, they may be held liable under “negligence per se.” Negligence per se only applies when a law is designed to protect a class of people from a certain type of injury, a defendant who violates that law is “negligent per se” […]
Pain and Suffering
Symptoms resulting from an injury which may vary person by person or by the extent of a victim’s injury. Examples of how pain and suffering may take form include: physical and mental distress over an injury, agony or grief from the loss of a loved one, the difficulty processing a major life change, depression, embarrassment […]
Permanent Disability (PD)
Any lasting disability that results in a reduced earning capacity, or that will affect your overall health or quality of life, after maximum medical improvement has been reached.
