Compensatory Damages
Money to make you whole — medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
What It Is
Compensatory damages in § 1983 are money awards designed to compensate you for the actual harm caused by the constitutional violation. They aim to make you “whole” — to restore you to the position you would have been in had the violation not occurred.
Categories
Economic (Special) Damages
Quantifiable financial losses:
- Medical expenses — Hospital bills, therapy, medication
- Lost wages — Time missed from work due to arrest, injury, or detention
- Property damage — Belongings destroyed during a search or arrest
- Legal expenses — Costs of defending against wrongful criminal charges (separate from § 1988 attorney fees)
Non-Economic (General) Damages
Subjective harms that don’t have a specific dollar amount:
- Pain and suffering — Physical pain from excessive force
- Emotional distress — Anxiety, depression, PTSD, humiliation
- Loss of liberty — The experience of being unlawfully confined
- Reputational harm — Damage to your reputation from a wrongful arrest or prosecution
- Loss of enjoyment of life — How the violation changed your daily existence
Proving Damages
- Document everything — Medical records, therapy records, pay stubs showing lost income, photos of injuries
- Get treatment — If you’re injured, seek medical care. If you’re suffering emotionally, see a therapist. Untreated injuries are harder to prove.
- Keep a journal — Document how the incident affects your daily life. This becomes evidence of emotional distress.
- Expert testimony — Medical experts and economists can quantify damages, but this costs money
The Emotional Distress Challenge
You can recover for emotional distress without physical injury in most circuits — but you need evidence. Your testimony alone may suffice, but it’s stronger with:
- Medical/therapy records
- Testimony from family or friends about changes in your behavior
- Documentation of nightmares, anxiety, avoidance behavior
For prisoners, the PLRA requires a showing of physical injury before recovering for emotional distress, which effectively bars many legitimate claims.
Key Cases
- Memphis Community School District v. Stachura, 477 U.S. 299 (1986) — Compensatory damages based on actual injury, not the abstract “value” of the right violated
- Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247 (1978) — Must prove actual injury for compensatory damages; procedural due process violation without injury yields only nominal damages
Related Terms
Articles Using This Term
Damages and How to Document Them in a § 1983 Case
Learn what damages you can claim in a Section 1983 case, what records actually prove them, and how to tell whether the case is worth the fight.
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Sample § 1983 Complaint for a False Arrest Case
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