What is moral hazard?

Very often, depending on the TV news, you hear about a lawsuit in which the plaintiff seeks compensation for his pecuniary damage. At the same time sounded fabulous sums: one million, fifty thousand dollars, etc. What is it - "moral hazard"? Who, when and in what amount it is entitled to a refund? This is what we'll talk in this article. 

The civil legislation of the Federation under the moral harm understands the physical and moral suffering of man. That is, to demand compensation for moral injury shall be entitled only to a citizen - a natural person, it is believed that legal persons can not suffer nor moral, nor, especially physically. But a certain number of writers expressed the view that legal persons must also be granted the right to recover non-pecuniary damage. At least in cases where on any organization subject to false information, discrediting goodwill. 

However, in court, we need to prove that our suffering is actually taken place. And if the fact of the presence of physical suffering is more or less just (enough to take a certificate from the hospital that you go and ask for help or were receiving treatment due to the fact that, for example, have an accident), then to prove the mental suffering in the court much difficult, almost impossible, though, at first glance, this might seem a simple matter.

You, for example, humiliated in front of close friends, of course, you are very experienced and suffered because of it. But the court immediately ask you, what is express your moral suffering, and, most importantly, how do you prove that you had one, maybe it's just words, but in reality you do not care who, what and to whom about you said. And you can do here is not so much: to invite the witnesses who have seen your soul throwing, in extreme cases, to appoint expertise to assess your mental (psycho-emotional) status and the relationship between him and what happened. However, such expertise is very expensive, rare, and may not give concrete answers to the questions raised in connection with "insufficient data" or "a lot of past tense."

In addition, it must be said that the law does not require courts to impose on the defendant's obligation to pay moral damages. Article 151 of the Civil Code states that if a citizen moral harm actions that violate his moral rights or infringing on a citizen belonging to other intangible benefits, as well as in other cases stipulated by law, the court may impose on the offender the duty of monetary compensation specified harm.

The right to determine the amount of compensation for moral damage is also given to the court, that is, in his statement of claim, you can specify any amount to any restrictions in the law on this point no, but the court has discretion to decide whether to pay you in its entirety or only a part. And, based on the practice, I can say that the greater the amount of people indicate in its statement, the adverse judge this applies significantly reduce that amount or even refuse to pay. So those who think: "Yeah, he called me a fool, I am now to him a suit brought by thirty thousand!" - Are badly mistaken in the fact that the court understand them.

However, when it comes to the deceased family member or serious injury, the court may choose to accommodate the plaintiff, because it is entirely different category of cases. Although in such cases, unfortunately, no money back lost health or life of a dear person.

In general, when determining the amount of compensation for moral damage the court takes into account the degree of guilt of the offender and other relevant circumstances. The court must also consider the degree of physical and moral suffering caused to the individual person who has suffered harm (paragraph 2 of Art. 151 Civil Code). In this case, the law also states that in determining the amount of compensation for harm should be taken into account the requirements of reasonableness and fairness (Article 1101 Civil Code).

Though the court and shall, when resolving the issue of compensation for moral damages to take into account the degree of guilt of the person who caused the harm, the legislation provided for cases in which compensation for moral damage done, regardless of fault. To those cases include:

1. Damage to life or health of the citizen source of danger (this includes vehicles, machinery, electrical energy is high voltage, atomic energy, explosives, potent poisons, etc.);

2. Causing harm to the citizen as a result of his unlawful conviction, unlawful prosecution, unlawful use as a measure of preventive detention or house arrest, illegal imposition of administrative punishment in the form of detention or correctional work.