Editing Damages (section)

=== Contemptuous damages ===

Contemptuous damages are a form of damage award available in some jurisdictions. They are similar to nominal damages awards, as they are given when the plaintiff's suit is trivial, used only to settle a point of honor or law.<ref>{{cite web|title=Contemptuous damages|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095634713|website=Oxford Reference|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=19 September 2017}}</ref> Awards are usually of the smallest amount, usually 1 cent or similar. The key distinction is that in jurisdictions that follow the loser-pays for attorney fees, the claimant in a contemptuous damages case may be required to pay their own attorney fees.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oliphant|first1=Ken|last2=Lunney|first2=Mark|title=Tort Law: Text and Materials|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0199211364|page=865|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bUUcu9c7LcC}}</ref>

Traditionally, the court awarded the smallest coin in the Realm, which in England was one farthing, 1/960 of a pound before decimalisation in the 1970s.  [[Court costs]] are not awarded.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spetz|first=Steven E|title=Can I Sue? An Introduction to Canadian Tort Law|year=1974|publisher=Pitman|location=Toronto|isbn=0-273-04189-4|page=219|chapter=Civil Court Procedure And Remedies For Tort}}</ref>