Following two previous reports on "Personal Injury Awards in EU and EFTA Countries" this text undertakes further research in the subject. The report provides a guide to an understanding of the personal injury awards system in both the European Union (EU) and European Free Trading Area (EFTA).

Potential awards to a married male doctor with two children are compared with those to an unmarried female legal secretary for 14 types of injury in each of these countries. For example, an unmarried female legal secretary with an injury that results in blindness will collect #610,469 in Italy, which is the largest award for that injury in the EU, and #100,000 in Austria, which is one of the smallest. If the legal secretary died, she would be worth 140 times more in Italy than in England. The text has added: exchange rate analyses and inflation comparisons across Europe; further categories of common injuries, namely, deafness, the concept of repetitive strain for several EU & EFTA countries and a schedule for stress (for England and Wales only); block graphs to cover more injuries; and an analysis of the changes which have taken place since the original survey and the survey for the second edition (1994) were carried out.