Damages

Damages can refer to either an injury that a plaintiff suffers or to the compensation that should be paid to a plaintiff.

For example, in a negligence action, plaintiff will allege that defendant carelessly caused the plaintiff to suffer damages – – an injury. That is, defendant’s breach of their duty of care caused plaintiff’s injury.

But we can also say that a plaintiff seeks damages from defendant. In this context, obviously plaintiff does not want another injury from the defendant, rather, the plaintiff seeks financial compensation for the harm defendant caused.