VALUATION OF AESTHETIC DAMAGE IN THE SCOPE OF BRAZILIAN CIVIL LAW

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Aesthetic damage has gained special relevance in recent decades, due to the appreciation of themes related to image and body harmony. The assessment of this damage continues to be quite imprecise, because it is an objectionable damage by the observer, measurable and valuable, however it has a large subjective component, both on the part of the subject who suffers from it, and on the part of the examiner. This article aims to present the current scenario in aesthetic damage valuation and to propose a new method for this purpose. METHOD: Bibliographic review of open access articles up to the year 2022, in Portuguese, Spanish and English. RESULTS: None of the existing methodologies proved to be sufficient to approach the real assessment of the damage that the aesthetic damage caused to the victims’ lives, none of the analyzed scales simultaneously evaluated the inherent characteristics of the lesion, the impacts on functionality and the psycho-emotional consequences. DISCUSSION: In Brazil, there are no definitive criteria for evaluating aesthetic damage. Currently, in order to reference and qualify the aesthetic damage, in addition to the detailed description of the condition, it is proposed to use an evaluative scale, the “gradual scale with seven degrees”, which is considered the most subjective method among the others. The difficulty of this assessment is a consensus in the literature and the real repercussions of aesthetic damage cannot be addressed by current methods, preventing the judge from awarding adequate compensation for the victim’s detriment. CONCLUSION: In order to contemplate all the fundamental aspects of the valuation as close as possible to the real impact of the damage, so that the judge can define the relevant compensation, we propose a new methodology for the evaluation of permanent aesthetic damage, composed of four tables that address objective and subjective criteria