Section 2: Damages, Defenses, and Special Liabilities

Types of Damages

As you likely noted when you were making your list of damages for the previous question, plaintiffs in civil law cases can ask the courts for damages as compensation for a variety of types of losses, even for so cut and dried a situation as a simple injury like Shawna's. There are, in fact, several different types of damages of which you should be aware:

General damages
Special damages
Punitive damages
Aggravated damages
Nominal damages

Deciding on what damages a plaintiff should be awarded in a negligence case can often be as difficult, or much more difficult, than deciding whether the defendant was actually at fault in the first place. Of course, the defendant, even if at fault, must be treated fairly.