Non-economic Damage and Primary Victims

Abstract

This chapter focuses on recovery for non-economic damages (i.e., losses that have no easily calculable market value) claimed by primary victims. After clarifying how the divide between primary and secondary victims is to be traced in the five jurisdictions surveyed in the book, the chapter explores the approaches and rules adopted in these jurisdictions to claims brought by persons who have suffered non-economic damage after being directly injured, either physically or personally. The chapter not only investigates the rationales and techniques through which the legal systems under review restrict recovery for such claims, but also sheds light on the interplay between contractual and tort liability when non-economic damages are at stake, on the special rules applying to comatose and exceptionally fragile victims, and on the different methodologies adopted by courts to determine the size of awards for such losses.