The amount of money awarded to the claimant in civil litigation to compensate for an injury or loss, based on an amount set by law instead of an amount determined by calculating the harm suffered by the claimant. Where statutory damages provisions apply, plaintiffs do not have to prove actual injury.

Statutory damages are pre-established to address situations where quantifying the correct amount of damages is difficult, such as in intellectual property and consumer protection cases. Guaranteeing a minimum award amount through statutory damages provisions also encourages claimants to vindicate losses and injuries that otherwise might not be worth litigating.

Some laws that provide for statutory damages establish a floor on the damages; others set a range. The following laws include statutory damages provisions:

See also punitive damages, compensatory damages and liquidated damages clause. For more information on damages generally, see Damages for Breach of Commercial Contracts Checklist.