Development of the Lost Pleasure of Life Scale

The concept of hedonic damages for loss of pleasure of life has been developed by forensic cases up to and including Molzof v. United States (1992). One instrument available for assessment in this area, the Lost Pleasure of Life (LPL) scale, was refined through development of a rating matrix consisting of 37 behavioral anchors which experts had categorized into progressive levels of loss. Using brief instructions and case examples, mental health clinicians rated 15 written vignettes for loss of pleasure of life resulting from physical injuries. Results indicated moderate reliability (ICC R = .65 to .70) and moderately high correlation (r ≥ .86) between rank orderings of the case vignettes based on LPL ratings given by the clinicians and on financial awards for each case given by undergraduate students.