General Damages for Hand and Wrist Injuries

General damages for hand and wrist injuries are valued by the function a person loses. That matters more than the size of the bone that broke. A small fracture in the wrong place takes grip, and most work and daily life depend on grip. This chapter states what courts examine, and the other limbs are indexed in the general damages guide.

Wrist Fractures Often Heal with a Permanent Deficit

The distal radius breaks when a person falls onto an outstretched hand, the reflex in almost every fall. Many of these fractures heal well. Those that heal with the bone slightly out of position leave a wrist that aches, loses the last part of its bend, and develops arthritis early. The scaphoid is a separate problem: its blood supply is poor, it is missed on early films, and a delayed diagnosis can end in a bone that never unites.

Grip Strength and Fine Motor Control Are Measurable

Unlike pain, hand function can be tested. An occupational therapist measures grip and pinch strength against the other side and against population norms, and a functional capacity evaluation records what the person can no longer do. That objective evidence makes hand claims harder for a defendant to argue down, so lawyers gather it early.

Nerve Injury and Amputation Sit at the Top of the Range

Loss of a finger is permanent, visible and constantly encountered. Loss of a thumb takes most of the hand’s usefulness, because opposition makes a grip possible. Nerve injuries produce numbness and cold intolerance, and in some cases a persistent burning pain that spreads beyond the original injury. That condition is argued the way the chronic pain chapter describes, and awards for it run well above those for the underlying fracture alone.

General Damages for Hand and Wrist Injuries Follow What the Hand Did Before

A cabinetmaker, a hairdresser, a musician and a dental hygienist all lose more from the same injury than someone whose work does not depend on their hands. Courts take that into account inside general damages, separately from any income claim. Hand and forearm injuries also arrive from animal attacks, which the firm handles as dog bite work, and the forearm and elbow above are covered in the arm and elbow chapter. Reported awards for hand injuries across the Atlantic provinces are searchable on CanLII.