Avocat Nice – Compensation for bodily injury.

COMPENSATION FOR ESTABLISHMENT DAMAGE BEFORE CONSOLIDATION

Cass. 2nd civ. 25 Apr. 2024, n°22-17229, FS-B

In a decision dated 25 April 2024, the 2nd Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation recognised the existence of pre-consolidation prejudice.

WHAT IS PREJUDICE D’ETABLISSEMENT?

Settlement loss is considered to be the loss of hope of achieving a personal life project.

By personal project, we mean the prevention of any plans, for example, to start a family and bring up children because of the seriousness of the disability.

Traditionally, this is an area of loss that is compensated independently once the state of health has been consolidated.

DOES THIS PREJUDICE EXIST BEFORE CONSOLIDATION OR IN THE ABSENCE OF CONSOLIDATION?

This was the question that the Cour de Cassation had to answer in a landmark ruling on 25 April 2024.

In this case, a young man was seriously injured when a pyrotechnic device exploded at a party.

Serious medical complications ensued, leading to his death nine years later.
He had never been consolidated.

However, the Court was asked to compensate him for the damage he had suffered.

In its judgment no. 22-17229, the Court ruled in favour of recognising and compensating the prejudice to health even before consolidation, given the length of the temporary period.

However, it refused to compensate it independently by including it in the temporary functional deficit.

WHY IS THIS ADVANCE, ALBEIT TIMID, GOOD FOR VICTIMS?

Despite the reluctance of the courts to make autonomous items not expressly provided for in the DINTILHAC nomenclature, which is non-binding, it should be remembered that any progress in this area should be taken seriously.

In fact, although temporary settlement damage has not been compensated independently, it has at least had the merit of being recognised.

According to DAMY, recognition is the first step towards fairer compensation, and our victims‘ lawyers will take advantage of any opportunity to defend their clients’ interests to the best of their ability.

Do not hesitate to contact the law firm in Nice to have your personal injury case studied so that together we can work out the best compensation strategy.