Expertise of reduced life activities in the lawsuit – challenges and dilemmas

Abstract

Pain is the most subjective form of immaterial damages, therefore it is impossible to objectively measure its intensity and duration. In the expertise of physical pain, the expert has to declare whether the damaged person suffered physical pain, what was their intensity, how long they lasted and whether it may occur in the future.
The reason for the different perception of pain is objective and is located in genes. According to variants of the gene, people can be divided into highly sensitive, average sensitive and low sensitive.
Objective measure for the measurement of pain does not exist. Different people experience pain differently. Therefore, we can say that the threshold of pain is individual and variable.
In determining the physical pain, the expert should use the knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of pain. During expertise it must also be taken into account the nature of the injuries that damaged person has suffered, subjective characteristics of the injured person and types of the injuries and part of the body where the injury were occured. These are the most important factors in qualification of the pain and determining the duration and intensity of the pain, as well as the character of painful conditions and their consequences.
It should be pointed out that the court medical practice has shown that regarding the intensity and duration of pain, as well as the nature of pain, there are objective difficulties in deciding in which group, to which grade and to which duration to classify physical pain, but not going out of the framework of existing medical regulations. The occurrence of such a dilemma justifies the use of the term borderline quality in asessing the character of the pain, intensity and duration of pain. The expert should show a lot of knowledge and skills to apply medical criteria and medical doctrine in each particular case.