Accidents often lead to injuries beyond the immediately visible. Physical injuries result in pain and discomfort though they’re often readily addressed. What doesn’t get talked about often is the psychological impact following an accident. Many individuals experience emotional distress including anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Recognizing that legal avenues exist to pursue compensation for these psychological injuries can help ease some burden off your shoulders. After all, you need to maintain the right balance between both your mental well-being and physical health.
Allow our Aiken personal injury lawyers at Johnson, Johnson, Whittle, Lancer, & Staggs to guide you in exploring potential legal options to address the full spectrum of accident-related trauma.
What is Emotional Distress in a Legal Context?
Any psychological suffering that arises from an accident or other traumatic event falls under the term emotional distress. Note that this goes beyond transient feelings and represents a genuine and substantial form of mental pain.
Types of Emotional Distress
Types of emotional distress vary widely, from anxiety and depression to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and loss of enjoyment of life, each impacting victims differently.
- Mental Anguish: This refers to sustained emotional pain and suffering where you may experience a persistent and burdensome feeling that significantly impacts daily functioning.
- Anxiety and Depression: Two of the most prevalent responses to trauma or physical injury. They most commonly manifest as persistent worry or a pervasive sense of sadness.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Frequently observed following severe accidents, PTSD involves recurrent flashbacks, nightmares, and heightened anxiety directly related to the traumatic event.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: This occurs when emotional trauma diminishes an individual’s capacity to derive pleasure from daily activities and relationships.
When Can You Sue for Emotional Distress?
You can sue for emotional distress when it results from someone’s negligent or intentional actions, especially if it accompanies physical injury or extreme misconduct.
Physical Injury Requirement
It’s generally easier to establish emotional distress when there’s a corresponding physical injury. Suffering a fracture requiring hospitalization provides solid evidence that something traumatic happened.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)
NIED happens when someone’s carelessness causes you significant emotional distress. A typical example would be witnessing your child get hurt because someone was driving recklessly. This case exemplifies that the other party’s negligence directly leads to your emotional pain.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
IIED occurs when someone deliberately acts in a way that’s intended to cause you severe emotional harm. This involves actions so extreme that they’d be considered intolerable by a reasonable person. Case in point is defamation where someone spreads false information to damage your reputation.
Bystander Claims for Emotional Distress
You might also have a case for emotional distress even if you weren’t physically injured. Such a claim involves witnessing a traumatic event involving someone you love which can feel just as traumatic as getting involved in an accident yourself.
Proving Emotional Distress in a Lawsuit
You need comprehensive documentation to substantiate claims of emotional distress. Your goal is to compile evidence that demonstrates the psychological impact of the event.
- Medical records from psychologists or psychiatrists: Medical records from mental health professionals provide objective documentation of diagnoses and treatment.
- Testimonies from mental health professionals: Expert testimony from therapists and psychiatrists offer professional assessments of the severity and impact of emotional distress. The specialized knowledge of mental health experts can clearly explain the psychological impact of the accident.
- Personal journals detailing emotional suffering: Personal journals present a chronological account of emotional experiences and valuable insights into the ongoing impact of the trauma. This is where you can demonstrate how emotional distress affects work, relationships, and daily activities.
- Duration: Winning an emotional distress claim becomes more viable when it persists for an extended period. Suffering mentally and emotionally for several months or even years only work to strengthen your claim.
Compensation for Emotional Distress
Compensation for emotional distress can include economic damages for medical treatment and therapy, as well as non-economic damages for pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Economic Damages
Economic damages aim to reimburse you for quantifiable financial losses incurred as a result of emotional distress. This includes expenses directly related to treatment and recovery such as the costs for psychological therapy, medications, and other related medical expenses.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages address the intangible aspects of emotional distress. These are inherently more difficult to quantify compared to economic damages because we’re talking about loss of enjoyment of life and emotional trauma. There are cases where this amount is determined by multiplying the economic damages by a specific factor.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are called for in cases of egregious misconduct. Note that these damages serve to punish the defendant for particularly harmful behavior and deter future similar actions.
Challenges in Emotional Distress Claims
Challenges in emotional distress claims include proving the severity of psychological suffering, overcoming insurance company tactics, and meeting the statute of limitations.
Proving the Severity of Emotional Distress
The subjective nature of emotional distress makes it difficult to demonstrate its magnitude. Physical injuries can often be objectively measured while emotional suffering varies significantly among individuals.
Insurance Company Tactics
Insurance companies may employ strategies to minimize or dispute emotional distress claims. These often involve challenging the validity or severity of psychological injuries to limit financial payouts, so it pays to do your due diligence and follow the steps for documenting your emotional distress discussed earlier.
Statute of Limitations
You have a limited time to file an emotional distress claim as failing to comply with these deadlines can result in the forfeiture of legal rights. In Aiken, SC, you have three years from the date of the accident to file your claim.
How a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help
A personal injury lawyer can help by evaluating your emotional distress claim, gathering evidence and expert testimonies, negotiating with insurance companies, and representing you in court.
Evaluating the Validity of Your Claim
Not sure whether you can really file for an emotional distress claim? Our team at JJWLS will perform an initial assessment to determine your claim’s legal viability. Not all instances of emotional distress constitute grounds for legal action so allow us to clarify your legal options with you.
Gathering Evidence and Expert Testimonies
Our personal injury lawyers can also provide assistance in collecting all the necessary documentation and the procurement of expert witness testimonies to strengthen your case. These may be difficult to obtain on your own especially following an accident where you suffer from both physical and emotional harm. Let us do the heavy lifting for you while you focus on recovery.
Negotiating with Insurance Companies
Insurance companies usually add to the stress you’re already dealing with after an accident. They’d stop at nothing until they successfully limit their financial payout.
Our team of personal injury lawyers have dealt with insurance companies all over Aiken and we take pride in our expertise to effectively negotiate with them. Count on us to give you the best shot at securing fair compensation for emotional distress.
Representing You in Court
In the event that amicable resolution cannot be achieved, JJWLS will provide robust legal representation in court to advocate for the compensation you are entitled to.
Schedule a Consultation With Our Aiken Personal Injury Lawyers Today
Filing for an emotional distress claim often presents more confusion among victims because of its subjective nature, so it’s best to have the most trusted personal injury lawyers in Aiken, SC by your side. Allow us to evaluate your claim and guide you throughout the process.
Call Johnson, Johnson, Whittle, Lancer, & Staggs today at (803) 649-5338 if you’re experiencing emotional distress and we’ll start working on a unique legal strategy based on your particular case.
