Abstract
According to art. 2958 of Civil Code, in the event of unlawful interference with health, the perpetrator shall compensate the injured party with monetary compensation, fully balancing the pain suffered and other non-pecuniary damages; if damage to health has created an obstacle to a better future for the victim, the harm will also compensate him for the difficulty of social application. If the amount of compensation cannot be determined in this way, it is determined according to the principles of decency.
In case of an adult injured party, it is possible to estimate what is meant by the term "difficulty in social application" even without a closer knowledge of the issue. The evaluation of the difficulty of social application, or permanent consequences for an adult is mainly based on a comparison of the activities and way of life of the injured person before the harmful event, or before damage to health, and after stabilization of health status, i.e. after damage to health.
It is determined whether and to what extent the previous opportunities of the injured party to apply themselves in life and society are limited or completely lost as a result of the injury to health. Determining the degree and extent of the difficulty of social application and the amount of compensation for them is relatively complex even for an adult victim.
However, it is even more difficult to determine the difficulty of social application of children who, until the moment of the occurrence of the harmful event, were not yet able to apply themselves in society either at all, or just insufficiently, or not in all possible spheres of life. When assessing to what extent the child's social application is hindered and to what extent, it is practically impossible to start from the state before the minor's health was damaged.
So there is the essential question, how to evaluate fairly and within the limits of the principle of decency in cases where je injured party is a minor? How to assess and decide on the obstacles to a better future? Does the child even have the right to compensation for an obstacle to a better future, when it is not obvious, or it is not possible to objectively determine what his future would be were it not for the harmful event? And if so, when should the evaluation of the child's difficulty in social application be carried out, when the child's health status continues to develop until approximately eighteen years of age? And who should carry out the assessment of the obstacles to a better future for the child and in what way, so that the provided compensation can be considered in accordance with the principles of decency?