Speculative damages are

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

claimed by a

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

for losses that may occur in the future, but are highly improbable. They can not be used as a basis for recovery in

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

cases. Example: A plaintiff claims the

tortfeasor A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

's failure to deliver a shipment not only hurt his current sales, but also customer satisfaction and thus future sales as well. There is, however, one way that speculative damages can be recovered. If the plaintiff can prove that the speculative damages are reasonably likely to occur, he can recover the damages up to the amount that is reasonably likely to occur. The damages do not have to be proven with ''absolute'' certainty, only reasonable certainty. For example, if the aforementioned small business owner claims that the tortfeasor's claims hurt his

customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT) is a term frequently used in marketing. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of ...

, and ''proved'' it by showing security camera footage of one of his most frequent customers being so upset over the business' inability to deliver the product that he ordered that he stormed out of the store and vowed to never come back, ''then'' the business owner might have something. However, he would only be able to collect on future sales for that one customer, as no other customer's future sales are "reasonably likely to occur." Ballentine's Law Dictionary has been used to define Speculative Damages in court cases such as ''Hawkinson v Johnston'' and ''Murphy v Hobbs'': 1. Damages not proved with reasonable certainty, the trier of the fact being left to speculate as to the actual damages suffered by the plaintiff. 2. Damages are not speculative merely because they cannot be computed with mathematical exactness, if under the evidence they are capable of reasonable approximation. 3. "So long as the jury are considering the material pecuniary injury, and the physical pain, their inquiry relates to what are termed actual damages; but when authorized by a vicious intent of the wrongdoer, they turn to the realm of mental anguish, public indignity, wounded sensibility, etc., the damages may more appropriately be described as presumptive, speculative, or imaginary."

References

Judicial remedies {{Law-stub