Unspecified claim - Misplaced Pages

An unspecified claim is a tort claim "where the amount to be awarded is left to the Court to determine."

Examples of unspecified claims are unspecified damages for personal injuries, such as from a motor vehicle accident (MVA) or medical malpractice.

Unspecified claim was previously known in the common law, especially in Britain and Pakistan, as an unliquidated claim.

In British tax law, an unspecified claim is also any unspecified tax liability.

Under New York civil practice, "stating a specific sum in (a) personal injury complaint" is normally barred. Technically, it is not strictly prohibited, but it prevents adding additional damages to jury instructions. However, under a recent New York Court of Appeals case, stating a specific sum is mandatory in Court of claims practice, so an unspecified claim "can lead to the loss of the claimant's whole case. Federal judge Walter Rivera used this reasoning when ruling in a parallel case in court filing found on nycourts.gov; “The failure to bring a late claim application before the expiration of the relevant statute of limitations would preclude the Court from considering the application because the failure to file a late claim application within the proscribed time period is a jurisdictional defect and the Court is without discretionary power to grant nunc pro tunc relief".

References

^ "Her Majesty's Court Service web site". Archived from the original on 10 June 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
Pakistani courts' official web site
Woolf Report, search for "unspecified claim".
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs web site
David D. Siegel, ed., New York State Law Digest, No. 568, April 2007, at 1.
N.Y. Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) section 3017 (c).
D. Siegel, ed., New York State Law Digest, No. 568, April 2007, at 1, citing Kolnacki v. State, 8 N.Y.3d 277 (2007), pdf file at .

References

See also