Damages Act 1996
| Year | 1996 |
Damages Act 1996
1996 Chapter 48
An Act to make new provision in relation to damages for personal injury, including injury resulting in death.
[24th July 1996]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Assumed rate of return on investment of damages.
(1) In determining the return to be expected from the investment of a sum awarded as damages for future pecuniary loss in an action for personal injury the court shall, subject to and in accordance with rules of court made for the purposes of this section, take into account such rate of return (if any) as may from time to time be prescribed by an order made by the Lord Chancellor.
(2) Subsection (1) above shall not however prevent the court taking a different rate of return into ac count if any party to the proceedings shows that it is more appropriate in the case in question.
(3) An order under subsection (1) above may prescribe different rates of return for different classes of case.
(4) Before making an order under subsection (1) above the Lord Chancellor shall consult the Government Actuary and the Treasury and any order under that subsection shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
(5) In the application of this section to Scotland for references to the Lord Chancellor there shall be substituted references to the Secretary of State.
2 Consent orders for periodical payments.
(1) A court awarding damages in an action for personal injury may, with the consent of the parties, make an order under which the damages are wholly or partly to take the form of periodical payments.
(2) In this section ‘damages’ includes an interim payment which the court, by virtue of rules of court in that behalf, orders the defendant to make to the plaintiff (or, in the application of this section to Scotland, the defender to make to the pursuer).
(3) This section is without prejudice to any powers exerciseable apart from this section.
3 Provisional damages and fatal accident claims.
(1) This section applies where a person—
(a) is awarded provisional damages and
(b) subsequently dies as a result of the act or omission which gave rise to the cause of action for which the damages were awarded.
(2) The award of the provisional damages shall not operate as a bar to an action in respect of that person's death under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 .
(3) Such part (if any) of—
(a) the provisional damages and
(b) any further damages awarded to the person in question before his death,
as was intended to compensate him for pecuniary loss in a period which in the event falls after his death shall be taken into account in assessing the amount of any loss of support suffered by the person or persons for whose benefit the action under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 is brought.
(4) No award of further damages made in respect of that person after his death shall include any amount for loss of income in respect of any period after his death.
(5) In this section ‘provisional damages’ means damages awarded by virtue of subsection (2)(a) of section 32A of the Supreme Court Act 1981 or section 51 of the County Courts Act 1984 and ‘further damages’ means damages awarded by virtue of subsection (2)(b) of either of those sections.
(6) Subsection (2) above applies whether the award of provisional damages was before or after the coming into force of that subsection and subsections (3) and (4) apply to any award of damages under the 1976 Act or, as the case may be, further damages after the coming into force of those subsections.
(7) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland—
(a) for references to the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 there shall be substituted references to the Fatal Accidents (Northern Ireland) Order 1977
(b) for the reference to subsection (2)(a) and (b) of section 32A of the Supreme Court Act 1981 and section 51 of the County Courts Act 1984 there shall be substituted a reference to paragraph 10(2)(a) and (b) of Schedule 6 to the Administration of Justice Act 1982 .
4 Enhanced protection for structured settlement annuitants.
(1) In relation to an annuity purchased for a person pursuant to a structured settlement from an authorised insurance company within the meaning of the Policyholders Protection Act 1975 (and in respect of which that person as annuitant is accordingly the policyholder for the purposes of that Act) sections 10 and 11 of that Act (protection in the event of liquidation of the insurer) shall have effect as if any reference to ninety per cent. of the amount of the liability, of any future b enefit or of the value attributed to the policy were a reference to the full amount of the liability, benefit or value.
(2) Those sections shall also have effect as mentioned in subsection (1) above in relation to an annuity purchased from an authorised insurance company within the meaning of the 1975 Act pursuant to any order incorporating terms corresponding to those of a structured settlement which a court makes when awarding damages for personal injury.
(3) Those sections shall also have effect as mentioned in subsection (1) above in relation to an annuity purchased from or otherwise provided by an a uthorised insurance company within the meaning of the 1975 Act pursuant to terms corresponding to those of a structured settlement contained in an agreement made by—
(a) the Motor Insurers' Bureau or
(b) a Domestic Regulations Insurer,
in respect of damages for personal injury which the Bureau or Insurer undertakes to pay in satisfaction of a claim or action against an uninsured driver.
(4) In subsection (3) above ‘the Motor Insurers' Bureau’ means the company of that name incorporated on 14th June 1946 under the Companies Act 1929 and ‘a Domestic Regulations Insurer’ has the meaning given in the Bureau's Domestic Regulations.
(5) This section applies if the liquidation of the authorised insurance company begins (within the meaning of the 1975 Act) after the coming into force of this section irrespective of when the annuity was purchased or provided.
5 Meaning of structured settlement.
(1) In section 4 above a ‘structured settlement’ means an agreement settling a claim or action for damages for personal injury on terms whereby—
(a) the damages are to consist wholly or partly of periodical payments and
(b) the person to whom the payments are to be made is to receive them as the annuitant under one or...
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