Can You Claim Compensation for Psychological Injuries?

A traumatic event, like an accident at work or a road traffic accident, can often cause psychological effects. These might be less immediately obvious than physical injuries, but they can have a profound impact on the quality of life of those affected.

In general, it is possible to claim compensation for psychological injuries.

If you have suffered psychological harm after an accident that someone else caused, you may be able to claim compensation – both for the injuries themselves and the negative effects they have had on your enjoyment of life.

Psychological symptoms and conditions can include:

• Intrusive thoughts
• Anxiety
• Agitation
• Depression
• Panic attacks
• Nightmares
• Flashbacks
• Changes in personality
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Suicidal thoughts

Even if you haven’t decided about making a compensation claim, if you are struggling with psychological symptoms after an accident, you should speak to your doctor or seek out other helpful resources, especially if your symptoms are seriously affecting your life.

Claiming compensation

Most personal injury compensation claims arise when someone has suffered an injury due to another’s negligence. Claims for psychological injuries are no different. Usually they are claimed for alongside physical injuries that have been caused at the same time. However, physical injuries are not required to make a personal injury claim (more on this below).

For your personal injury claim to succeed, you and your solicitors must prove several elements:

1. The person who injured you must have owed you a duty of care. Generally, if that person was in a position where it was reasonably foreseeable their conduct could cause you injury, there will be good grounds for proving a duty of care. For example, well established duties of care exist between:
   • Motorists and other people using the road
   • Healthcare providers and their patients
   • Those working in public places and the people around them
   • Employers and their employees
2. They must have breached their duty of care. This means they must have acted in a way which a reasonably competent and responsible person in their position would not have done. For example, if your car was hit from behind, a reasonably competent motorist would have been able to stop in time; they would have allowed an appropriate stopping distance, or remained alert etc.
3. Their breach must have caused your injuries as well as any other damages you are claiming for.

These are the basic elements of a claim, but psychological injuries can result from accidents that occur in various circumstances, such as:

• Accidents at work
• Criminal injuries
• Road traffic accidents
• Accidents in public places, such as slips, trips, or falls

Proving psychological injuries

The evidence that’s needed to support the psychological injuries you have suffered usually takes the form of one or more reports from an independent medical expert.

Often, medical experts will use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to classify psychological symptoms. Broadly speaking, recognised psychological conditions diagnosed in this way will support a higher compensation award than more generalised psychological symptoms.

If you are considering a claim, it can be very helpful to keep a record or diary of the psychological symptoms you have experienced. This can make it easier to remember how your symptoms were and how they have progressed over time.

What if I have suffered psychological injuries only?

If you were directly involved in the accident, and your psychological injuries are the only injuries you have suffered – or they were a lot more severe than your physical injuries – then you can claim compensation in much the same way as described above.

However, psychological injuries may also result from witnessing an accident or seeing the immediate aftermath of one.

Claims like this are rare and can be complicated. But, in certain circumstances, the courts have allowed people who have suffered psychological injuries in this way (sometimes called ‘secondary victims’) to claim compensation.

If this applies to you, there are various additional requirements which you and your solicitors must establish if you wish to claim compensation. Three of the main criteria are:

• A sudden, shocking, traumatic event. This will be the case for most accidents that are witnessed.
• A ‘close’ relationship of love and affection to the person who was directly injured. This can include partners, parents, children, and family members. It means you cannot claim compensation for symptoms caused by witnessing the injury or death of a stranger in an accident. From previous court decisions, it is not always clear what relationships are deemed sufficiently ‘close’. This highlights some of the complex, and at times seemingly harsh, ways in which the law can operate in this area.
• Proximity in time. You must have seen, with your own eyes, the accident itself or its immediate aftermath. Unfortunately, being informed later that a loved one has been injured or killed in an accident – and experiencing completely understandable trauma – has been deemed insufficient in previous court decisions.

In the recent Supreme Court decision of Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (2024), the court denied several compensation claims for psychological injuries. The claims were brought by people who had witnessed the deaths of loved ones which had been caused by medical negligence. The medical negligence had occurred when the ‘primary victims’ had been misdiagnosed by their doctors, and this was days (in one of the cases) or months before the deaths had occurred. The court held that it was these misdiagnoses that were the key event (rather than the traumatic events of the patients’ deaths which the claimants had witnessed). And so, in part, the court’s decision was based upon the idea that the ‘accident’ did not fit the definition of a sudden, unexpected, traumatic event. It was found that a medical practitioner could not owe a duty of care to the loved ones of a patient, who at a later stage might be psychologically harmed by witnessing the death of that patient.

Getting legal advice on psychological injury claims

If you have experienced psychological injuries after an accident, Bridge McFarland may be able to help you to claim compensation. Our team of friendly, experienced personal injury lawyers are on hand if you would like advice and guidance on your options.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you would like to know more.