Deck 21: Damages for Death and Personal Injuries

Question 1

The primary object of an award of damages in tort is to do what?

A) Punish the defendant
B) Show that the defendant behaved badly
C) Set an example
D) Compensate the claimant

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In Livingston v Raywards Coal Co [1880], Lord Blackburn defined the principle of damages in tort as being to provide restitutio in integrum. What does this mean should happen to the claimant?

A) They should be put into the position (as far as money can do it) they were originally in
B) They should be put into the position (as far as money can do it) that they expected to be in
C) They should be put into the position (as far as money can do it) as if they had got what they were relying on

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The damages multiplier for the lost earnings of a 25 year old man rendered unable to work as the result of another's tort is 40 (years).

Answer 3

False
Explanation: while it might appear to be common sense that damages based on the inability to work would be based upon the number of years left until retirement age (65 for a man), the principle does not work like this. The courts take into account other factors, such as the fact that the damages payment is (usually) awarded as a lump sum, and the 'vicissitudes of life' idea. The actual multiplier will be much lower than 40.

Question 4

The court uses the _________ ________ (a set of actuarial tables) to help them work out the appropriate multipliers to be used in damages claims.

Question 5

What can be compensated by damages in tort?

A) The loss of future earnings
B) The loss of past earnings
C) Past medical costs
D) Future medical costs
E) The cost of a carer
F) The claimant's pain and suffering
G) The claimant's lost amenity

Question 6

Which statute allows the dependants of a deceased person (where the death was caused by a tort) to make a claim against the defendant for their own losses suffered as a result of the tort?

A) The Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934
B) The Fatal Accidents Act 1976
C) The Compensation Act 2006

Question 7

Who can make a claim for bereavement?

A) A child of the deceased
B) The deceased's spouse
C) The deceased's civil partner
D) A cohabitee of the deceased
E) The parent of the deceased

Question 8

Claims management companies are now regulated by the Compensation Act 2006.

Question 9

In Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council [2004], Lord Hobhouse said that 'the pursuit of an unrestrained culture of _____ and compensation has many evil consequences'.

Question 10

The Government's Better Regulation Task Force, in its report Better Routes to Redress, said that 'the compensation culture is a ____; but the cost of this belief is very real'.