‘$5,750 Does Seem To Be Unreasonably Low’
An award of $5,750 to a shooting victim from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board seemed “unreasonably low,” the Court of Appeal has said, with the Court substituting an award of $10,000, as well as $1,500 for the victim’s legal costs.
The ruling said, “The Appellant in this case, Lionel Thomas was the victim of a firearm attack which occurred in the small hours of 29 April 2014.
“Mr Thomas was disturbed by the presence of people close to his house, and as he investigated, one of those people shot him. He is said to have suffered gunshot wounds to his upper right thigh and his left calf, for which he received medical treatment from Dr Kyjuan Brown
“The award of $5,750 does seem to us to be unreasonably low. Mr Thomas suffers some continuing consequences from his injuries, with particular reference to the chronic leg pain and muscle cramps identified in Dr Brown’s second report.
“Even if these complaints do not technically rise to the level of being a disability, they clearly represent some continuing level of discomfort suffered by Mr Thomas.
“Ms Greenidge accepted that some level of additional award would be appropriate, but urged that it should not go above $10,000. I agree that this is the appropriate level of award for this case, and would therefore substitute an award of $10,000 for that of $5,750 granted by the Board.
“Mr Thomas’ application included a claim for $1,500 for the costs of proceeding under the Act,” the ruling added.
“I do not have the necessary detail to do that in this case, but I do not regard the figure of $1,500 as unreasonable in the circumstances, and would award Mr Thomas his legal costs in this amount, to be added to the award for pain and suffering of $10,000, to give a total award of $11,500.”
The full judgement follows below [PDF here]:
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