General Damages for Scarring and Disfigurement

Courts award general damages for scarring and disfigurement to compensate a permanent change to how you look and how you feel about being seen. The award is separate from the pain of the wound itself, so a scar can carry real value even after the injury underneath has fully healed. Atlantic Canada judges assess the scar, the person carrying it, and the life it interrupts.

What the Court Examines on the Scar Itself

Size, location, colour and texture all matter, and location matters most. A scar on the face, neck or hands is visible in every conversation, and courts treat it more seriously than a larger scar the clothing covers. Whether revision surgery could improve it counts too: a scar a plastic surgeon says is permanent and unimprovable is assessed as it stands, while one that surgery would fade is assessed with that prospect priced in.

The Personal Factors That Change the Number

The same scar is not worth the same amount to every claimant. Courts consider age, because a young person carries the scar for decades longer. They consider work that puts the claimant in front of the public. They also consider the psychological evidence: embarrassment, avoidance of swimming or photographs, and changes in how the person dresses are all compensable, and they are proved through treatment records and the claimant’s own testimony.

How General Damages for Scarring Are Proved

Photographs taken at intervals, in consistent light and at consistent distance, are the core of the claim, because a scar seen only at trial understates two years of living with it. A plastic surgeon’s report speaks to permanence and revision prospects, and counselling records speak to the psychological weight. The firm photographs scarring at set intervals on its dog bite files for exactly that reason.

Where Scarring Sits in This Guide

Scarring rarely arrives alone. Burn scarring is assessed together with the burn, in the burn injuries chapter, and facial scarring often travels with the injuries in the dental and jaw chapter. The guide’s opening chapter states how the whole series is organised. Reported scarring awards vary widely with the factors above, and the decisions themselves are published on CanLII.