Special damages

What are special damages?

Special damages are the historical pleading term for losses with a specific, calculable dollar figure attached, requiring particular identification in a complaint under older common law practice.

The distinction from general damages traces back to common law pleading rules, where losses not obviously flowing from the injury itself had to be specifically stated to avoid surprising the defendant.

In modern usage, this category corresponds very closely to what is now more commonly called economic damages, and the two terms are largely used interchangeably today.

Encountering both terms in different documents relating to the same claim is entirely normal rather than any sign of inconsistency.

What does this category typically include?

These are losses documentable through records rather than losses inferred simply from the nature of the injury itself.

• Medical bills and related treatment expenses
• Lost wages and documented income loss
• Property damage, including vehicle repair costs
• Costs of assistive devices and home modifications
• Any other quantifiable financial loss arising from the injury

Why did this pleading distinction develop historically?

Because certain losses, like the obvious pain resulting from a broken bone, were considered to flow naturally and predictably from the wrong itself, requiring no specific advance notice to the defendant.

Other losses, like the specific cost of a particular medical specialist or the exact amount of a specific paycheck missed, were not inherently obvious from the nature of the injury and therefore required specific pleading to give fair notice.

This distinction shaped formal pleading requirements considerably, even though modern practice has relaxed many of the strict pleading rules that originally produced it.

Which term appears where today?

Special damages appears more frequently in older case law, certain formal pleadings and some jury instruction language that has not been fully modernized in terminology.

Economic damages appears more commonly in modern settlement negotiations, damages statutes and contemporary discussion of case valuation.

Neither term changes what is actually recoverable. Both describe the same underlying category of documentable financial loss, regardless of which specific label a particular document happens to use.

Common questions

Are special damages the same as economic damages?

In practical modern usage, yes, these terms correspond very closely and are frequently used interchangeably to describe the same category of documentable financial loss.

Why do I see this older term in my case documents?

Certain pleadings and older case law retain the historical common law terminology, while modern settlement discussions typically use the more contemporary economic damages language instead.

Do I need to itemize every one of these damages specifically?

Generally yes, since these losses require specific documentation and itemization, unlike general damages which are not tied to a specific calculable figure in the same way.