Module 2

Compensatory damages: expectation, reliance, restoration, cost of cure and how loss is measured

Money damages are the central remedy of the civil law, and the one that a lawyer will use most often. They rest on a simple idea, called the compensation principle: damages are meant to put the claimant in the position they would have been in if the wrong had not happened. The idea is simple, but its application is not. Which position? The one the claimant would have been in if the contract had been performed, or the one they were in before they made it? How is a loss of future earnings turned into a sum today? When the claimant could repair a defect for a modest cost, or recover the difference in value between what was promised and what was delivered, which measure is right? And what if the defendant’s wrong was only one of several causes? This module sets out the principle and the main measures, works through examples with invented figures and introduces the Contract Remedies Calculator, a tool that applies the measures to a stated set of facts. The next module deals with the limits on damages: remoteness, certainty, mitigation and the like.

General education on civil remedies, using invented cases, businesses and people. It states common principles in simplified form and does not describe any one country's law, which differs and changes; rules on damages, punitive damages, costs, limitation periods and enforcement in particular vary. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the instruction of a law school or advice from a qualified lawyer.