Loss of Amenity – What is it and How is it Calculated?

Loss of amenity meaning

Loss of amenity is part of your compensation that recognises the wider impact on your social life that a personal injury or an instance of medical negligence has.

Loss of amenity goes beyond the immediately obvious areas you need to be compensated for, such as for the pain and suffering caused by the injury, known as general damages, and your ability to work which is known as special damages. Loss of amenity forms part of your general damages and compensates you for not being able to do the things you love, because of your injury. This can be hobbies, looking after your children or being social.

Can you claim for loss of amenity?

Claiming for loss of amenity is something that can be included in your medical negligence or personal injury claim.

Before you can consider claiming for loss of amenity, you must have a genuine medical negligence or personal injury claim. This means that you must be able to prove you have been injured and that there has been a breach in duty of care that was owed to you, and that breach led to your injury.

If this is satisfied then you can look to claim compensation for loss of amenity.

How is loss of amenity proved?

To prove your claim for loss of amenity, you may have to provide evidence of your lifestyle and/or activities before your injury or accident occurred. This could be through statements from friends and family, perhaps photographic evidence of the activities you participated in, or maybe even proof of membership to a club you belong to.

How are damages for loss of amenity calculated?

As with most aspects of medical negligence, the amount you can claim will be entirely dependent on your own personal situation.

It will depend on the severity of your injury, the impact that it has had on your life, (whether it is temporary or permanent) and other factors such as your age and line of work.

For example, the time in which you spent doing your hobby may have an effect on how much you can be compensated. You could receive more compensation for a hobby that you do twice a week, compared to a hobby that you only do a few times a year.

Examples of loss of amenity

Loss of amenity compensation is for the things in your life you can no longer do because of your injury, beyond your ability to work. This can take on several forms.

• A person may have suffered from an injury which has damaged their eyesight or even caused blindness, and they can no longer continue doing photography as a hobby.
• A runner is now no longer able to compete in marathons, due to a severe injury to their knee.
• A person is no longer able to play in their local band after a severe injury to their hand left them unable to play the guitar.

As you can see, loss of amenity will be very specific to the individual, and time must be spent evaluating what it is a person can no longer do.