L'EVALUATION JUDICIAIRE DU PREJUDICE RESULTANT DE BLESSURES CORPORELLES: DE L'IMPRESSIONNISME AU REALISME?

Authors

  • RENE LETARTE

Abstract

Mr. Justice Letarte, who himself has been involved on a number of occasions in assessing damages for severely injured plaintiffs, first discusses the influence of the "trilogy" on the assessment of damages, a process which he suggests appeared until recently to have been carried out in a rather "impressionistic" manner. He analyses the principles adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada and applies them to a hypothetical case, which he illustrates by a scenario designed to provide a better understanding of the utilization of the amounts awarded during the anticipated lifetime of the victim. He also emphasizes the surprising impact of taxation and of the cost of administration on the amount of the award. He shares the concern expressed in the "trilogy" about the necessity of determining in a definitive fashion a single final amount, which in effect makes a prophet of the trial judge. He asks whether the suggestions of the Supreme Court will remain a dead letter, or whether it is possible to envisage either a system of review of awards or the adoption of structured settlements, which offer considerable savings to defendants and protect victims from being undercompensated.

Keywords:

Tort Law

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Published

1986-03-01

Issue

Section

Legal Commentary