If you sustained injuries due to another party’s negligence or fault in Halifax, Nova Scotia, you may have the right to seek financial compensation for your resulting losses. Depending on the nature of your injuries, your financial recovery may include compensation for non-pecuniary losses.
Introduction to Non-Pecuniary Damages
In a personal injury claim, an injured victim may have the right to recover compensation for various losses they have or reasonably will incur due to their injuries. Financial recovery in personal injury cases can compensate injured parties for economic losses and personal harm caused by their injuries. The law allows personal injury claimants to seek compensation for non-financial, personal losses in recognition that such compensation will help make an injured victim “whole,” since an injury can cause emotional trauma or damage on top of financial losses.
Understanding Non-Pecuniary vs. Pecuniary Damages
Compensation in personal injury cases falls into two categories: pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages. Pecuniary damages include tangible financial losses that result from physical injuries, such as medical expenses, costs of long-term disability care, lost wages from missed work, and lost future earning potential. Conversely, non-pecuniary damages include non-tangible, emotional, and personal loss caused by injuries, including physical pain, emotional trauma or distress, impaired personal relationships, and diminished quality of life.
Key Categories of Non-Pecuniary Damages
The main categories of non-pecuniary damages in a personal injury case include:
- Pain and Suffering – Injuries can cause accident victims to experience physical pain and anguish, including pain from the injuries themselves and subsequent medical treatment and rehabilitation, including post-operative pain or fatigue from rehabilitation exercises.
- Emotional Distress – Accidents and injuries can cause various forms of emotional distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt, anxiety, and depression.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life – The process of recovering from injuries or resulting disabilities or disfigurement can significantly reduce an accident victim’s quality of life.
- Disfigurement and Physical Impairment – When injuries cause permanent physical and cognitive impairment or visible scarring and disfigurement, non-pecuniary damages can compensate injured victims for the emotional loss from becoming unable to participate in activities one previously enjoyed or the embarrassment, humiliation, or loss of confidence that one can experience due to visible scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of Consortium – Finally, the spouse of an injury victim can also pursue a compensation claim as part of their spouse’s personal injury action for loss of consortium. “Loss of consortium” refers to the impairment or interference of a marital relationship that injuries can cause. This category covers various harms, such as loss of intimacy or sexual relations, emotional distance between spouses, or the inability of the injured spouse to provide care, comfort, companionship, advice, or protection.
Calculating Non-Pecuniary Damages
Calculating non-pecuniary damages in a personal injury claim can become far more challenging than calculating pecuniary or financial losses. With pecuniary losses, an injury victim can total their past losses by referring to bills, invoices, receipts, and pay stubs or income statements. For future pecuniary losses, injury victims may rely on financial experts to calculate the total amount of expected future losses and reduce that amount to present value.
However, calculating non-pecuniary damages usually involves a non-mathematical, subjective evaluation. Some parties may use mathematical formulas as a starting point for determining non-pecuniary damages. Standard formulas used for non-pecuniary damages include the multiplier and per diem methods.
Under the multiplier method, parties total the injured victim’s pecuniary losses and multiply that figure by a number between one and five. The multiplier used reflects the severity of the accident victim’s injuries and disabilities, with numbers approaching five used for more severe injury cases.
Under the per diem method, parties decide on a dollar amount reflecting the value of non-pecuniary losses an accident victim suffers on an average day. The parties then multiply that figure by the number of days the accident victim takes to reach maximum medical improvement.
Mathematical formulas have some limitations in adequately evaluating non-pecuniary damages. For example, the multiplier method may not reflect the details of an individual’s pecuniary losses, while the per diem method doesn’t account for losses that continue after an accident victim reaches maximum medical improvement. Furthermore, mathematical formulas ignore the fact that injuries, disabilities, and disfigurement or scarring can cause different kinds of pain, emotional distress, or loss of quality of life for different people. An injury that causes one person significant pain may not hurt as much for another person.
As a result, calculating non-pecuniary damages should rely on other kinds of evidence. These might include the accident victim’s testimony about the effects of their injuries on their life and testimony from other parties, such as the accident victim’s family members, friends, co-workers, and treating healthcare providers.
Case Studies and Precedents
As an example of non-pecuniary damages in personal injury cases, a Sydney man in one recent case received $100,000 for non-minor injuries as part of a $1 million total award after suffering permanent disabilities from a rear-end collision. Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1970s issued a series of rulings that held that few, if any, personal injury cases could warrant an award of non-pecuniary cases above a certain threshold. Over the years, that threshold has increased in response to inflation, but it has limited awards of non-pecuniary damages in most personal injury cases.
The Role of Personal Injury Lawyers in Non-Pecuniary Claims
A personal injury lawyer can help an accident victim maximize their financial recovery of non-pecuniary losses through dedicated legal representation and vigorous advocacy that includes:
- Thoroughly investigating the client’s case to obtain evidence relevant to proving non-pecuniary losses, including medical records, medical expert testimony, and testimony from family members and friends
- Evaluating other non-pecuniary awards in similar personal injury cases in the region
- Vigorously negotiating with opposing parties or insurers to demand full financial recovery in a settlement
- Taking the client’s case to court and trial to persuasively argue for an award that provides you with justice
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer Today
When you’ve suffered injuries in an accident caused by another party’s negligence or fault, you need an experienced legal advocate to work tirelessly to recover maximum compensation for your non-pecuniary losses. Contact Wagners Law Firm today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer to learn more about your right to seek financial recovery for the non-pecuniary harm caused by your injuries.