Damages

• An amount of money calculated as ‘damages’

• the purpose is to restore the Plaintiff to the position they were in before the civil wrong occurred

• Do damages restore a person to their original position?

Types of damages and their purposes:

Injunctions:

• Injuctions are a court order compelling a party to either stop something or do something

• Restritcive injuction - compels the party to NOT do something. Eg. injuction may prevent a person posting negative comments about somebody on Facebook or instagram

• Mandatory Injuction - Compels the party to do something. Eg. Fulfil the obligations that they’d agreed to

• An injuction can be permanent or interlocutory. An interlocutory injuction is a temporary court order that remains in place until the main issue is resolved

Discuss the ability of damages to achieve their purpose:

• Financial losses may be easier to calculate then psychological harm, pain and suffering

• Future losses may be harder to quanitgy and be compensated for

• Enforcement of court orders - will the damages actually be paid

• Caps on amounts thay can be awarded - wrongs Act sets limits. Aggravated damages are capped at $600,000

• Injuctions may not come into place until after the damage has already been done (eg- an injuction to prevent future social media posts does not undo the damage that previous posts have made)

• Courts must weigh up the benefits and limitations of the injuction on all parties

• An injuction by itself may not compensate for loss or harm done