Legal regulations of non-pecuniary damage: theory and practice

Long ago people recognized non-pecuniary damage, as wel as pecuniary losses, which are stemming from physical injuries, death or emotional trauma. All these kinds of damages are hard to estimate and determine though. Despite the fact that some lawyers argue for abolition of compansation for non-pecuniary damage, this sort of damage still seem to be significant dealing with defence of a plaintiff under this rubric in defferent European countries. By the means of legal practice of non-pecuniary nature the person could claim damages for physical and emotional suffering, nervousness, grief, anxiety and ambarrasment. However, non-pecuniary damage should not be identified with pecuniary losses. At this point, the apprehension of non-pecuniary damage is supposed to be linked to the compensation instead of fine. In order to clarify this statement, the most important is that the compensation of non-pecuniary damage, first of all, serves as damage rewarding or as a kind of civil remedy and protection. Although, some voises said that pain and suffering awardas are hard to estimate due to the fact that the damage valuation of these kinds of losses sometimes we just can not figure out properly. Nowadays, under legal regulation, courts determine and estimate the value on non-pecuniary damage bearing in mind all significant circumstanses. Consequently, courts could change the value on non-pecuniary damage in two ways: lower or higher the compensation for these losses. Moreover, courts always pay attention on how a plaintiff and a defendant were acting at the moment of an accident. Insuranse acts as an instrument of economics which, by the means of little expenses, helps a person to escape high, unexpected losses. For this reason, in case a defendant, for instance, causes harm at work or driving, the tort law provides such measures as compulsory insurance which serves as a measure for protection the defendant from possible losses. The aim of tort law is to lower a certain extent of undesirable expenses as for a third person as for the whole society. For this purpose, by the means of the agreement with an insurance company, a plaintiff is striving to escape a financial break, especially acting in the area which is considered at a high risk. Therefore, tort law is supposed to cover at least 100000 litas. Tort law seeks to compensate victims as well as injurers. In this case the person who suffers harm is able to demand the compensation not only from a defendant but from the insurance company as well, if one has made some agreement with it. At this point it is crucial not to take any priority to the non-pecuniary damage or pecuniary losses (rather the latter one, as we could see from the practice, might be significantly high). On the other hand, in the legal proceedings which awards non-pecuniary damage it is important to stick to the clear system of compensaitions in order to be able to predict and calculate them in future and avoid the situations with dishonest demandants. The restrictions of legal regulation for non-pecuniary damage compensation conditioned by LR transports contradicts the essence of insurance basics and Constitution of LR and therefore seems to be faulty and should be rewiewed and changed. Moreover, the minimum pay under tort law for the one particular incident should be noticeably increased or the extent of the compensation should cover both pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage