Mitigation, Apology and the Quantification of Non-Pecuniary Damages
Keywords:
Damages, mitigation, non-pecuniary losses, pain and suffering, happiness, apology, Daños, mitigación, pérdidas no pecuniarias, dolor y sufrimiento, felicidad, disculpasAbstract
The law has historically granted damages for some forms of non-pecuniary losses. In doing so, courts have freely admitted that there is imprecision in quantifying such losses and that there is no quantitative and objective calculus on pain and suffering. Against this background, new research on how hedonic losses are experienced by a victim provide an opportunity to review how non-pecuniary losses should be compensated. Some of this research suggests that experiences of anxiety, frustration and suffering may not affect a victim’s happiness as great as is presupposed in current models of compensation, and further, that its impact may also be ameliorated by the offering of an apology. In this essay, the author asks whether the law can incentivize tortfeasors to offer an apology as an element in mitigating compensatory damages for non-pecuniary loss
Históricamente, el derecho ha concedido daños y perjuicios para algunas pérdidas no monetarias. Al hacer esto, los tribunales han admitido que existe una imprecisión a la hora de cuantificar estas pérdidas y que no existe un cálculo cuantitativo y objetivo del dolor y el sufrimiento. En este contexto, nuevas investigaciones sobre la experiencia de las víctimas frente a pérdidas hedonísticas ofrecen la oportunidad de revisar cómo se deberían compensar las pérdidas no pecuniarias. Algunas de estas investigaciones sugieren que las experiencias de ansiedad, frustración y sufrimiento pueden no afectar a la felicidad de una víctima tanto como se presupone en los modelos actuales de compensación, y además, su impacto puede mejorar al ofrecer una disculpa. En este ensayo, el autor se pregunta si el derecho puede incentivar a los causantes del daño a ofrecer una disculpa como elemento con el que reducir la indemnización por una pérdida no pecuniaria.
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