General Damages

General damages — also called non-pecuniary damages — compensate the losses that have no receipt: pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of amenities. In Canada they are capped. The Supreme Court of Canada set the ceiling at $100,000 in a 1978 trilogy of cases led by Andrews v. Grand & Toy Alberta, and indexed for inflation that cap now sits at roughly $450,000 — reserved for the most catastrophic injuries.

Why it matters to you#

The cap is the most misunderstood number in Canadian liability. People hear "pain and suffering is capped" and conclude Canadian lawsuits are small — that US-style multi-million-dollar verdicts can't happen here. The first half is true; the conclusion is false. The cap applies only to general damages. Cost of future care and lost future income — the pecuniary heads of damage — are uncapped, and they are what push Canadian catastrophic injury awards past $10 million and, in the largest reported cases, past $18 million. If you're using the cap as a reason to stay at a $1 million liability limit, you're reading the wrong line of the judgment.

In practice#

In a catastrophic injury award, general damages are usually the smallest major component:

• General damages (capped): up to ~$450,000
• Cost of future care (uncapped): often several million in brain and spinal injury cases
• Loss of future income (uncapped): often $1–3+ million for a young or high-earning plaintiff

In MacNeil v. Bryan (Ontario, 2009) — roughly $18.4 million in total — the capped pain-and-suffering portion was a small fraction of the award. The rest was arithmetic: attendant care, therapy, equipment, and a lifetime of lost earnings, priced year by year.

The cap protects defendants from runaway sympathy. It does nothing about runaway arithmetic. See what the uncapped side of a judgment could mean for your household.

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