Accident Claim Lawyers
CompensationUpdated September 2026

General damages

In plain English: general damages are compensation for harm that has no receipt attached: the pain of the injury, the distress, and the ways your everyday life has been changed or limited. They sit alongside special damages, which cover your specific money losses.

Same phrase, slightly different meaning

This term trips people up because it's used a little differently depending on where you are.

  • US: general damages usually means non-economic losses such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life and disfigurement.
  • England, Wales and Scotland: the core of general damages is PSLA, short for pain, suffering and loss of amenity. "Loss of amenity" means losing the ability to enjoy things you used to do, like sport, gardening or lifting your children. Some lawyers also put future financial losses under the general damages heading.
  • Canada: you'll mostly hear "non-pecuniary damages", which covers the same ground.

How a figure is reached

Nobody can put an exact price on a year of back pain, so the system relies on comparison. In England and Wales, lawyers and judges start with the Judicial College Guidelines, which give brackets for different injuries, then look at past court awards for similar cases. Scotland uses the same guidelines alongside Scottish case law. In Canada, courts compare similar cases, and there is a court-set cap on non-pecuniary damages, indexed for inflation, which only matters in the most catastrophic cases.

In the US there are no national tables. A jury decides if the case goes to trial. Before that, adjusters use internal software and rough methods, such as multiplying medical bills. Some states cap non-economic damages in certain types of case, most often medical malpractice.

What pushes the figure up

  • How severe the injury was, and how long it lasted or will last
  • Surgery, scarring or permanent restrictions
  • Specific activities you had to give up, backed by detail
  • Psychological effects, such as anxiety about driving or disturbed sleep
  • Consistent medical records that match what you describe
Example

Two people have the same fractured ankle. One heals fully in four months. The other has lasting stiffness and can no longer run, which had been a big part of her life, with a club she trained with three times a week. Her general damages will be higher, because her loss of amenity is real and documented.

Help your claim say what happened

Keep a simple diary, and ask family or friends who've seen the change to be ready to describe it. "I can't do much anymore" is weak. "I used to walk the dog for an hour every morning, and now I manage ten minutes" is what makes general damages real to an adjuster or judge.

Next: general vs special damages · pain and suffering · compensation hub.

Related terms

Mitigation of DamagesMitigation of damages means you're expected to act reasonably to keep your losses from growing after an accident.Non-Economic DamagesNon-economic damages are compensation for the human cost of an injury, the parts that don't come with a bill.Out-of-Pocket ExpensesOut-of-pocket expenses are the everyday costs you've paid yourself because of your accident.Pain and SufferingPain and suffering is compensation for the physical pain and emotional strain an injury causes you, from the day of the accident through recovery and, if it lasts, beyond.

General information, not legal or medical advice. Rules differ between US states, the UK and Canadian provinces, so check the law where your accident happened. How we write and check · Legal disclaimer