Understanding Damages in Legal Proceedings

1. 損害賠償damages 楊智傑

2. 名詞 • Injunction禁制令 • Damages 損害賠償 • Relief救濟

3. Jury instructions on damages • Although plaintiffs sometimes seek injunctive relief, the likely object of a tort action is a monetary award of damages

4. 法官降低或增加 • Judge may not set aside damages awards merely because they would have reached a judgment different from that of jury. • However, if a court thinks that the amount of a jury’s award is excessively high or excessively low, the court may grant a motion for a new trial or entertain a motion for remittitur or additur

5. 名詞 • pain and suffering痛和受苦 • damage caps損害賠償金額上限

6. 損害賠償金額上限(damage caps) • In general, damage caps which purport to limit both economic damages (e.g., medical expenses) and non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering) have tended to be held unconstitutional, often on the ground that they irrationally discriminate between victims on the basis of the severity of the injury and tend to have greatest adverse effect on those most seriously injured.

7. 名詞 • loss of consortium 親情損失 • Expenses花費 • Spouse配偶

8. 傷害造成的親情損失 • Damages for loss of consortium include medical expenses paid by the plaintiff for the injured spouse, the costs of hiring someone to do the work an injured spouse cannot do (either temporarily or permanently), and, in cases involving serious injuries, compensation for the loss of the companionship and affection of the plaintiff’s spouse (sexual or otherwise).

9. 避免損害擴大 • Under the avoidable-consequences rule, a plaintiff may not recover compensation for any aggravation of damages which could have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care after the legal wrong was committed by the defendant.

10. Survivor生存者，死者遺屬 • Recovery回復 • pecuniary losses金錢損失 • emotional distress精神痛苦

11. 死亡家屬可請求的損失 • In some states, recovery in a wrongful-death action is limited to pecuniary losses, such as income or benefits the survivor has lost as a result of the death. • However, most states now permit recovery in a wrongful-death action of the value of lost companionship, society, advice, and guidance. • Some states also allow damages for grief or other forms of emotional distress.

12. 懲罰性賠償 • Punitive or exemplary damages are awarded not to compensate the victim, but to punish or make an example of the defendant.

13. 懲罰性賠償上限 • Some states have enacted limits on the amount of punitive damages (e.g., the Texas statute generally limits punitive damages, except in cases of certain felonies, to the greater of (1)two times the amount of economic damages, plus “an amount equal to any noneconomic damages found by the jury, not to exceed $750,000” or (2)$200,000).