Justice of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš speaks about compensation for moral damages in civil cases at the conference of the Council of the Baltic Association of Judges
On Thursday, September 26, Justice of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš participated at the conference of the Council of the Baltic Association o Judges, where he gave a presentation on the topic “Compensation for Moral Damages in Civil Cases”. The conference was held in Mäetaguse, Estonia, and was attended by delegations of judges from Latvian courts of all levels.
The conference proceeded in three working sessions. Each session was allocated for the reports given by delegates from one of the Baltic States. In his presentation, Aldis Laviņš spoke about the judicature of the Latvian courts with respect to compensation for moral damages, for example, for endangering life and health, poor quality medical care, ungrounded detention and interrogation of a person, violation of private life.
In providing an insight into courts’ judicature, Aldis Laviņš underscored that compensation for moral damages was determined by the court on case-by-case basis, following the sense of justice and general legal principles. There are no united rates for determining compensation. To set it, the severity and consequences of the moral damages as well as other substantial circumstances are taken into consideration, Aldis Laviņš drew attention to the fact that the amount of compensation, set by the court, should perform the functions of justice, reconciliation and prevention (eliminations). This means that the compensation should be proportionate and not only give certain satisfaction to the person, whose rights had been infringed upon, but would also deter anyone from committing a similar offence in the future,
Aldis Laviņš encouraged participants of the conference to share their experience, by proposing a number of legal issues for discussions. For example, how to prove the existence of moral damages (physical and mental suffering)? If a person has deceased, should each member of the family be entitled to compensation or single compensation should be determined for the whole family who had suffered? Is compensation for mutilation separate compensation or is it a part of compensation for moral damages? Does the cassation instance court have the right to determine itself the amount of compensation? Who has the right to claim compensation for moral damages if the victim has deceased? Do the heirs of the deceased person succeed in this right, and is the fact that the victim himself had already submitted a claim in the court of importance?
Judge Rudīte Vītuša from the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate and Judge Dace Skraupule from Zemgale Regional Court also gave presentations at the conference.
The presentation by Judge Aldis Laviņš in English is available here.