Often in practice there is such a thing as moral harm. And his compensation, despite all the specifics of such damage, is material in nature. How did you manage to combine the incompatible and express in monetary form the mental suffering of the individual? What is meant by moral harm and how is it assessed? This is our article.
What does it mean?
Non-pecuniary damage and its compensation are a separate institution of civil law. In the civil law, its very concept is established. So, moral harm is usually understood as suffering (both physical and moral) that a person experiences in connection with the fact that someone violated his personal intangible rights. Compensation is understood as compensation for damage. It represents a cash payment approximately equal to the strength of the torment inflicted.
In what cases is moral harm and compensation?
The very procedure for collecting money for experienced suffering is quite strictly regulated by law. A person has the right to recover non-pecuniary damage in the presence of a list of certain conditions. These include:
- real suffering;
- unlawful action of his offender;
- causal relationship between the two points above;
- guilty tormentor.
It is important to note that all the described circumstances should take place, and not just one or some of them.
How to determine the price of suffering?
Non-pecuniary damage and its compensation must be expressed in a specific amount of money. This question is very sensitive and controversial. The amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage, as directed by law, is determined by the court. In this case, various indicators must be taken into account. These include the degree of guilt of the offender, the strength of the experienced suffering, personality traits of the victim and other critical circumstances. There are no general rules for determining the value of torment. So, the decision is made by the judge in each case in different ways. In this case, it is impossible to use the principle of equivalence, that is, complete equality, when establishing the amount of moral harm. In this case, compliance, adequacy should be established. We can say that the amount of compensation cannot and should not be equal to the degree of harm, but it must be sufficient.
What is the meaning of compensation for non-pecuniary damage?
Nevertheless, it should be recognized that it is impossible to clearly determine the price of mental suffering. Therefore, many jurists are inclined to believe that concepts such as moral harm and its compensation are introduced into the legal sphere in order to reduce the victim’s moral torment and arouse positive emotions in him. In this regard, it is believed that such a “smoothing out” of suffering is rather conditional, precisely because of the peculiarities of a person’s mental structure. After all, no money will help to forget the suffering that a person suffered as a result of violation of his legal rights and interests.
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