In our legal system, there is the principle that everyone must behave in such a way as not to harm the position of others. In fact, the damage is defined as that prejudice that derives from a negligent (i.e. caused by negligence, inexperience, or imprudence) or voluntary behavior of another subject. If this damage is unfair, that is, there is no law that authorizes or imposes that particular behavior, then the law requires that the perpetrator of the behavior be obliged to compensate the damage itself.
In the very recent past, it was customary to distinguish pecuniary damage into categories and more precisely into:
• Biological damage: damage to health
• Moral damage: damage resulting from the pain suffered for having suffered a crime
• Existential damage: the damage related to those injuries of the personal sphere that determined a situation in which the victim was no longer able to carry on the activities and habits that had characterized his previous lifestyle.
Compensation differs from compensation
In fact, while compensation is the activity imposed by law to repair unjust damage, compensation is provided in those cases in which unfair damage is not caused (and therefore there would be no obligation to compensate for the prejudices created), but however, the law deems it appropriate for the injured party to still receive a sum to balance a situation that would risk becoming unfair.
The most typical example is represented by the compensation provided for by art. The civil code which establishes that whoever causes damage to others to save himself or others from the danger of serious harm to the person (provided that the danger has not been caused by him) is not required to pay compensation, but the judge can still recognize a sum to the injured party as compensation. This is the so-called “state of necessity “.
Damage to health (biological damage)
The non-pecuniary damage also includes damage from injury to health, called biological damage, particularly known because it is normally liquidated in most of the procedures that derive from a road accident during which injuries have occurred.
Biological damage has found its first definition in the discipline of injuries resulting from a road accident, but this category applies to all types of injuries caused by others’ careless behavior.
Think of the case of the surgeon’s mistake that causes the patient to be disabled following the incorrect execution of an operation. A wrongful death lawyer in California can help you with such cases.
Obviously, the injury to health can also concern the psychic sphere of the injured person when this, due to the illicit behavior of others, develops a psychological pathology.
Normally, for the assessment of the existence and extent of damage to health, a special forensic expert is used.
The assessment of biological damage takes into account:
• The duration of the illness: that is the time from the occurrence of the damage to the moment of recovery or to the moment in which the therapies are no longer able to improve the situation of the injured person (in this case we speak of temporary disability )
• Any permanent consequences that cannot be eliminated even by continuing with the therapies and that the injured person will therefore suffer for the rest of his life (in this case we speak of permanent disability).