At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury.
It may be useful for the lawyers, the plaintiff and/or the defendant to employ forensic accountants or someone trained in the relevant field of economics to give evidence on the value of the loss.
[6] For example, compensatory damages may be awarded as the result of a negligence claim under tort law.
[8] Liability for payment of an award of damages is established when the claimant proves, on the balance of probabilities, that a defendant's wrongful act caused a tangible, harm, loss or injury to the plaintiff.
In Murfin v Ford Campbell, an agreement had been entered into whereby company shares were exchanged for loan notes, which could only be redeemed if certain profit thresholds had been achieved in the relevant accounting years.
If Mary sues in tort, she is entitled to damages that put her back to the same financial position place she would have been in had the misrepresentation not been made.
Incidental losses include the costs needed to remedy problems and put things right.
The claimant would be entitled to the direct costs required to rebuild the factory and replace the damaged machinery.
These may include the lost profits that the claimant could have been expected to make in the period whilst the factory was closed and rebuilt.
[20] When it is either not possible or not desirable to award the victim in that way, a court may award money damages designed to restore the injured party to the economic position they occupied at the time the contract was entered (known as the "reliance measure")[21][22] or designed to prevent the breaching party from being unjustly enriched ("restitution") (see below).
[27] General damages in England and Wales were increased by 10% for all cases where judgements were given after 1 April 2013, following changes to the options available to personal injury claimants wanting to cover the cost of their litigation.
In English law solicitors treat personal injury claims as "general damages" for pain and suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA).
Solicitors quantify personal injury claims by reference to previous awards made by the courts which are "similar" to the case in hand.
Statutory damages are an amount stipulated within the statute rather than calculated based on the degree of harm to the plaintiff.
Mere violation of the law can entitle the victim to a statutory award, even if no actual injury occurred.
Although the verdict was automatically trebled pursuant to antitrust law in the United States, the resulting $3 judgment was regarded as a victory for the NFL.
Until 2021, in the United States, there was a circuit split as to whether nominal damages may be used if a constitutional violation had occurred but has since been rendered moot.
[32] The Supreme Court decided 8–1 in the 2021 case Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski that nominal damages are appropriate means to redress violated rights otherwise now rendered moot.
They are similar to nominal damages awards, as they are given when the plaintiff's suit is trivial, used only to settle a point of honor or law.
In England and Wales, exemplary damages are limited to the circumstances set out by Lord Devlin in the leading case of Rookes v. Barnard.
Doyle and Wright define restitutionary damages as being a monetary remedy that is measured according to the defendant's gain rather than the plaintiff's loss.
In some areas of the law this heading of damages is uncontroversial; most particularly intellectual property rights and breach of fiduciary relationship.
In England and Wales the House of Lords case of Attorney-General v. Blake opened up the possibility of restitutionary damages for breach of contract.
In this case the profits made by a defecting spy, George Blake, for the publication of his book, were awarded to the British Government for breach of contract.
In addition to damages, the successful party is often entitled to be awarded their reasonable legal costs that they spent during the case.