How a Trial Fixes General Damages

How a trial fixes general damages is a question of process rather than arithmetic. There is no calculation. The judge hears the evidence, decides who to believe, places the plaintiff among the decided cases, and states one figure in the reasons for judgment.

The Record Is Built Long Before the Trial

Pleadings define the injuries claimed. Discovery produces the records and the sworn examination of each party. Expert reports are exchanged on fixed timelines, and an injury unsupported by a served expert report is difficult to run at trial. Most of what determines the award is settled at this stage rather than in the courtroom.

What the Judge Hears on General Damages

The plaintiff gives evidence about the injury and about the life it changed. Lay witnesses corroborate the change. Medical experts give opinions on diagnosis, causation and prognosis and are cross examined on them. Counsel then file briefs of comparable cases and argue where the plaintiff belongs in the range.

How a Trial Fixes General Damages in the Reasons

The reasons set out findings on credibility, findings on the medical evidence, and then one non-pecuniary figure with the decided cases the judge relied on. The judge is not bound to any party’s proposed range. Prejudgment interest is added under provincial legislation and costs follow the result. Reasons for judgment in New Brunswick are published by the New Brunswick courts and on CanLII.

Judge or Jury

Civil jury trials are available for some injury claims in parts of Atlantic Canada and are uncommon in practice. Where a jury assesses general damages it is instructed on the legal principles but is not given the figures from comparable cases, and the judge applies the ceiling afterwards if the verdict exceeds it. That ceiling is explained in the supreme court cap chapter.

Appealing the Number Is Difficult

An appeal court does not substitute its own view of a fair figure. It intervenes only where the trial judge applied a wrong principle, or where the award is so inordinately high or low that it amounts to a wholly erroneous estimate. That is a high bar, and it is one reason parties settle instead, as the settlements chapter explains.

What the Firm Does

The firm prepares an injury file to be tried, which is what makes a settlement demand credible, on car accident and motorcycle accident claims, with no fee unless the claim resolves.