Damages are money awarded to compensate for a legal wrong. The principal categories are compensatory damages, which restore the injured party, and punitive damages, which punish and deter egregious conduct.
Compensatory damages divide into economic losses, which are quantifiable, and non-economic losses, which are not.
Alternative Names:
Monetary Damages, Money Damages
Why it Matters?
Damages analysis drives every other decision in a case: reserve setting, settlement authority, expert retention, and whether trying the case is rational. Defense teams that focus on liability while treating damages as a late-stage issue routinely misjudge exposure, because in serious injury litigation the damages number determines the outcome far more often than the liability percentage does.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What are the main categories of damages?
Why does state law matter so much for damages?
