How is Damage Evaluated in Beauty Treatment Claims?

Claims for compensation in relation to cosmetic and beauty treatments which have not gone as expected, and resulted in corporal damage, are on the increase.

In many cases, repairing such damage can be a long, painful, and costly experience. However, receiving adequate financial compensation for professional negligence can assist in the process.

In relation to beauty treatment claims and the reparations for damages, aesthetic damage is becoming increasingly important; progressively, there is a tendency to consider the need to repair any alteration that affects it, under the criterion of integral restitution of the damage.

The aesthetic damage violates the constitutional right to personal integrity and prefigures the need for compensation by the responsible party.

It should take into account the growing care and appreciation that is given these days to the aesthetic factors, as more and more people dedicate time and money to the care of their body.

To ensure the fairness of the compensation, it is essential to measure this aesthetic damage and know how to quantify it; trying to reduce as far as possible the presence of subjective criteria of valuation.

Measuring is one of the fundamental activities of the evaluating physician, because only after measuring is it possible to evaluate, qualify and provide elements of judgment for those who have to make decisions. The use of a scale is an act of measuring that seeks to offer a solution to the problem of the economic quantification of corporal damages, whose repair without instruments, can be the cause of arbitrariness, causing the amount of compensation to vary erratically.

Classification

The assessment of the aesthetic damage consists in evaluating the decrease in the attraction capacity of the victim, due to the deformity that they suffer, without considering the other repercussions that this damage may have.

Among the different attempts to harmonize criteria in Europe, Resolution No. 75 of the Council of Europe stands out, as it contributes guiding principles in the assessment and repair of bodily harm. Regarding aesthetic damage, the resolution states that: “it is about studying and evaluating the loss of attraction purely and not the physiological, social, moral and labour repercussions, since these must be valued not within the aesthetic damage, but within the respective damages.

Assessment of aesthetic damage

Aesthetic damage assessment methods used to assess aesthetic damage comprise three methods: (a) Descriptive, (b) Qualitative and (c) Quantitative.

(a) Descriptive method: consists of the meticulous exposure of the alterations, both static and dynamic, that cause the loss of attraction of the injured.

Static aesthetic damage is that which remains unchanged, regardless of the changes in attitude that the person adopts, such as scars and dyschromia.

The dynamic aesthetic damage, is appreciable in change with the changes of attitude, as happens with a limp.

(b) Qualitative method: consist in expressing the degree of aesthetic damage through a qualifier. For this, qualifying scales are used, which are tables that consist of a gradual series of qualifiers or situations.

It corresponds to the functional deficit caused by the incident, to a certain adjective of those listed in the scale. An example of a qualitative scale used for traffic accidents is where the importance of the deficit is expressed with an adjective (light, moderate, medium, important, very important and considerable).

(c) Quantitative method: consists of expressing by means of a percentage the degree of functional deficit of the subject, starting from the conventionally established principle that the aesthetic integrity of the person corresponds to 100%. It is based on the use of the percentage scale.

If you have suffered corporal damage as a result of a cosmetic or beauty treatment gone wrong, you should seek expert legal advice. The evaluation of compensation in relation to such injuries, including burn injury claims is extremely complex, and, as such, requires specialist knowledge in order to ensure your claim is adequate and appropriate based on the damage suffered.

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