Compensation for Damages

COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGES

In the practice of the Rasic & Partners law firm, a significant place is occupied by disputes arising from harmful events, such as injuries at the workplace, traffic accidents, sports injuries, and the like. The reason for this is the frequency of disputes in this area, especially in urban areas. Due to excessive traffic jams in big cities, traffic accidents with significant consequences occur daily. Consequences, or damage, can be of a material and/or non-material nature.

NON-MATERIAL (NON-PROPERTY) DAMAGE

Material (property) damage consists in the destruction of a thing, or a minor or major injury, making it impossible or difficult to use the thing, or in some nuisance for which removal it’s necessary to make expenses that otherwise wouldn’t be made. It is a violation of a property interest or property. The offender is obliged to compensate the injured party for the interest he would have had if the harmful event had not occurred.

Material damage can also occur in the event of an injury to another natural person if that injury resulted in the incapacity for work or medical expenses. Cases of material damage in case of bodily injury or damage to health are:

• cost of treatment
• lost earnings
• costs of increased need due to injury

There are two types of material damage: real (visible) damage and lost profit.

NON-MATERIAL (NON-PROPERTY) DAMAGE

Non-material damage differs from material damage because it does not represent property loss. It arises as a result of mental, physical pain and fear suffered.

For the physical pain suffered, the fear suffered and the mental pain suffered due to the violation of personal rights protected by law, the court can award compensation for non-material damages when the intensity and duration of the pain and fear justify it, taking into account the importance of the damaged good and the purpose served by the compensation, so not to favor aspirations that are incompatible with the nature and purpose of monetary compensation for non-material damage.

For mental pain suffered, the court can award compensation for non-property damage only in the cases enumerated by law:

• Physical pain suffered
• Fear suffer
• Mental pain suffered due to reduced life activity
• Mental pain suffered due to being angry
• Mental pain suffered due to injury to reputation and honor
• Emotional pain suffered due to the death of a close person
• Mental pain suffered due to a particularly severe disability of a close

According to the Law on Contract and Torts (Art. 200), for physical pain suffered, mental pain suffered due to reduced life activity, humiliation, injury to reputation, honor, freedom or personal rights, death of a close person as well as fear, the court will award a fair monetary compensation, independently of compensation for material damage as well as in its absence, if it finds that the circumstances of the case, and especially the intensity of pain and fear and their duration justify it.

COURT PRACTICE OF RASIC & PARTNERS LAW FIRM

Typical legal proceedings related to damages in which our attorneys participate are:

• Work injuries
• Automobile and road traffic accidents
• Bicycle and motorcycle accidents
• Claims for damages related to sports injuries
• Accidents with animals
• Amputated or lost limbs
• Industrial diseases
• Multiple fractures and broken bones
• Fatal injuries