| 英文摘要 |
Assessing pain and suffering damages in wrongful death cases is discretionary and in some ways mysterious. The Taiwan Supreme Court has laid out the necessary factors to be taken into account by lower courts such as plaintiffs’ and defendants’ incomes and education levels. It is doubtful, however, whether and to what extent these factors affect the decisions by the district courts in Taiwan. Using a novel data set, this article presents the first large-scale, sophisticated empirical study of pain and suffering damages in wrongful death cases in Taiwan. The findings are that the factors emphasized by the Taiwan Supreme Court had no effect. In addition, familial relations mattered greatly, while age and attorney representation had no clear effects. Moreover, judges used their discretion in assessing pain and suffering damages to adjust the awards to compensate for the victims’ other losses. Finally, we find evidence in support of the conjecture that courts would take into account the possibility that high pain and suffering damage may bankrupt defendants. |
