Personal injury damages in Singapore
10 example judgments · 4 courts · tort
When a personal-injury claim succeeds in Singapore, the court assesses general damages — the compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by the injury itself — separately from special damages, the proven out-of-pocket losses such as medical expenses and loss of earnings. In assessing general damages for a bodily injury, the Singapore courts work from the Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases, the reference framework published for this purpose, and then adjust to the facts of the case before them — the nature and severity of the injury, the claimant's recovery and any permanent disability, and awards made in comparable decided cases. The Guidelines are applied in this way in reported judgments such as [2026] SGMC 3. This site does not reproduce the Guidelines' suggested figures; instead it reports the amounts the courts actually awarded in decided judgments, organised by the part of the body or type of harm: chest & torso injuries, head & brain injuries, leg, knee & ankle injuries, multiple-injury awards, neck & whiplash injuries, psychiatric injuries, scarring & disfigurement, wrist & hand injuries. Each of those pages lists the awards from real Singapore judgments, head of damage by head of damage, with a link to the full decision. For the wider body of tort law these cases sit within, see the tort practice area. The figures across the 10 judgments behind these pages are amounts awarded on the specific facts of each case, not a tariff and not a prediction of any future award. This page is reference information about how the courts assess general damages, not legal advice.
Key questions about Personal injury damages in Singapore
How do Singapore courts assess general damages in a personal injury case?
The court starts from the Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases — the reference framework for assessing general damages for bodily injury — and applies it to the facts: the type and severity of the injury, the degree and permanence of any disability, and the awards made in comparable decided cases. General damages compensate the pain, suffering and loss of amenity of the injury itself; proven financial losses are dealt with separately as special damages. The injury-cluster pages on this site report the amounts actually awarded in reported judgments for each kind of injury.
What is the difference between general damages and special damages?
General damages compensate non-financial harm — pain, suffering and loss of amenity arising from the injury — and are assessed by the court. Special damages are the claimant's proven out-of-pocket losses, such as medical bills, transport costs and loss of earnings up to trial, which are calculated from the evidence. The injury-cluster pages report both kinds of award as they appear in each judgment.
Where can I see the amounts Singapore courts have awarded for a specific injury?
Each injury-cluster page reports the awards from real Singapore judgments for that category — for example chest & torso injuries, head & brain injuries, leg, knee & ankle injuries, multiple-injury awards, neck & whiplash injuries, psychiatric injuries, scarring & disfigurement, wrist & hand injuries — listing each head of damage and the sum the court awarded, with a link to the full decision. The amounts are what the courts awarded on the facts of those cases; they are reported as a record of past decisions, not as a prediction.
Example judgments
Reported Singapore judgments below illustrate this citation, ordered by how often they are cited within this corpus. Each links to the full judgment.
Related
tort →Compiled by the SG Case Law editorial team from primary sources — the judgments themselves and Singapore Statutes Online (sso.agc.gov.sg). · Updated 18 June 2026 · How we compile this