Glossary
Special Damages
By LiabilityGap EditorialUpdated 1 min read
The short answer
Are special damages for lost income and future care capped in Canada the same way pain and suffering is?
No. Special (pecuniary) damages — cost of future care, lost income, out-of-pocket expenses — are uncapped in Canada and limited only by the evidence. Only non-pecuniary general damages for pain and suffering are capped, at roughly $450,000 under the Supreme Court's 1978 trilogy. Pecuniary awards routinely reach into the millions in catastrophic cases.
Special damages compensate the measurable financial losses an injury causes — medical and care expenses, lost income, and other costs that can be added up in dollars. They are pecuniary damages: money for money lost. Strictly speaking, lawyers often reserve "special damages" for out-of-pocket losses before trial and claim future care and future income under separate pecuniary headings — but in everyday use the term covers the whole receipts-and-spreadsheets side of an award. None of it is capped in Canada.
Why it matters to you#
This is where Canadian lawsuits get big. Pain and suffering is capped at roughly $450,000 by the Supreme Court's 1978 trilogy, but pecuniary damages are limited only by the evidence — and in catastrophic cases the evidence is an actuary's report pricing a lifetime of care and lost earnings. Attendant care for a serious brain or spinal injury can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, for decades. A young plaintiff's lost career adds millions more. That arithmetic is how Canadian courts reach awards of $10 million and beyond — MacNeil v. Bryan (Ontario, 2009) totalled roughly $18.4 million — against ordinary drivers carrying $1 million policies. The defendant owes the difference personally.
In practice#
A simplified catastrophic-injury award might break down like this:
- Out-of-pocket expenses to trial: $150,000
- Cost of future care: $8–12 million (attendant care, therapy, equipment, home modification)
- Loss of future income: $1.5–3 million
- General damages (the only capped line): up to ~$450,000
Every figure except the last is open-ended, driven by the severity of the injury and the age of the person injured — not by anything you control.
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Frequently asked questions
What are special damages?
Special damages compensate measurable financial losses from an injury — medical and care expenses, lost income, and other costs that can be calculated in dollars. Lawyers often use the term for pre-trial out-of-pocket losses, with future care and future income claimed as separate pecuniary damages, but all of it is money loss and none of it is capped in Canada.
Are special damages capped in Canada?
No. Canada's roughly $450,000 cap applies only to non-pecuniary general damages for pain and suffering. Pecuniary losses — cost of future care, loss of future income, out-of-pocket expenses — have no cap and are limited only by the evidence.
Why are pecuniary damages so large in catastrophic cases?
Because courts price the actual lifetime cost of an injury. Round-the-clock attendant care for a brain or spinal injury can run into millions of dollars over a lifetime, and decades of lost earnings add millions more. Canada's largest reported awards exceed $18 million on this arithmetic.
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