Travel Talks: General Damages in France, Spain & the Netherlands Part 1

Ian Denham is joined by Ana Romero Porro, Thomas Ricard and Gerben Janson as part of the ‘OTC Travel Talks’ series to discuss the quantification of non-pecuniary or general damages in Spain, France and the Netherlands.

The discussion is divided up into two sections, with Part 2 to be published soon.

Part 1: The general approach to compensation

In the first section, each of the speakers detail how their respective legal jurisdictions seek to implement the principle of restitutio in integrum.

French law (1:00 –  4:00) adopts the Nomenclature Dintilhac which involves the concept of consolidation or stabilisation of injury. This plays an important role in determining the dividing line between ‘past’ and ‘future’ losses but also sets the clock ticking for limitation of actions as well.

Spain (4:00 – 8:20) adopts a similar system involving consolidation of injures and similarly adopts a tabular system of compensation: the Baremo system, which formally only applies to motor accidents but is applied widely. Ana observed that the rigid system should be interpreted more widely when a  victim is suffering their loss outside of Spain, an issue that is likely to be the subject of legal debate.

The system in the Netherlands (8:20 – 15:14) adopts a less structured system of compensation whereby Dutch judges consider the level of percentage disability of a claimant together with reported case-law, which is compiled every two-years. Gerben observed that the consensus in the Netherlands is that the level of general damages is far lower than its neighbours and it has been ordered that awards for general damages should be increased by 10%.

Watch the Video

Find Out More

Webinars & Recordings 6 Apr, 2021