An Empirical Study On Compensation For Pain And Suffering Damages In Car Accident Cases

Compensation for pain and suffering damages in car accidents is a relatively difficult problem in judicial practice.On the one hand,with the strengthening of the protection of personality rights,the status of improving the compensation for mental damage has gradually become a trend.On the other hand,because of the lack of clear reference standards for pain and suffering damages,many countries and regions have quotas for fear of abuse of discretion.Judges need to maintain "completely fill damages" and "consistent judgments to similar cases" when discretionary use of discretion.Motor vehicle traffic accident cases require special consideration due to the special nature of their liability bodies and insurance systems.Most of the existing researches are normative research,and they have encountered bottlenecks in helping judges to achieve discretionary balance in the similar cases.Therefore,it is necessary to carry out in-depth empirical research.The legal norms for compensation for motor vehicle traffic accidents are gradually established with the formation and development of the mental damage compensation system.The accumulation of relevant national laws and regulations directly or indirectly provide references for judicial practice.Relevant local legal norms present the characteristics of "legal federalism" and lay the groundwork for inter-provincial differences.From the empirical study of judicial cases,the disability grade coefficient is the main objective scale of the judge's reference;under the current legal system,the anchoring effect cannot fully explain the high correlation between the court judgment solatium and the plaintiff's request for solatium;The inter-provincial differences are significant,and the differences in economic levels are relatively small between the provinces with restrictive provisions.Through a macro comparison with the legal practice of other countries or regions,it can be confirmed from the side that the amount of compensation for pain and suffering damages in China is generally not high and there is no room for adjustment.On the basis of theoretical and factual analysis,it is necessary to adjust the specifications accordingly.The rules for discretionary factors need to be configured,but not too much,and rely on judges to make discretion based on the context of the case.At the micro level,setting flexible limits can improve the status quo.At the macro level,the soothing function determines that it has a low correlation with the victim's livingstandards.In order to narrow the inter-provincial differences,a relatively consistent standard of quotas should be set.In the long run,it is necessary to establish a sound social risk dispersion mechanism to reduce the discretionary burden of judges and more fully fill the mental damage of the plaintiff.