Most of us view accidents in terms of the obvious injuries they cause. However, sometimes a person’s action leads to more than just physical trauma. It’s fairly common knowledge that you can sue other people for physical injuries. But what if the circumstance is different like suing someone for emotional distress?
When you get into a serious accident, this doesn’t only result in physical injuries but emotional ache also. Sometimes, emotional distress can be more difficult to quantify. In this article, we’ll be discussing the legal outcomes of suing someone for causing emotional distress.
Understanding Emotional Distress
We need to understand first what emotional distress is depending on the law prior to getting to the process of suing. Emotional distress is a kind of mental agony or anguish caused by an incident either through intent or carelessness. The courts acknowledge emotional distress as a form of damage that can be recovered by filing a civil lawsuit. Basically, you can sue a person for emotional trauma or distress only if you can provide strong evidence to support your claims.
Furthermore, you may also suffer emotional distress even if you’re not physically injured. For instance, you’ve witnessed a loved one die in an accident or a bystander during an event that leads to the death or injury of others, you are at risk of suffering emotional trauma. If you can actually prove that your emotional stress is real, you are entitled to collect for lost wages, medical therapy and procedures.
Two Types of Emotional Distress Claims
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress– This kind of claim happens when the defendant purposely or carelessly forces emotional trauma upon another individual. For example, someone constantly inflicts torment and verbal attacks then these could be considered grounds for a case, while name-calling another person would not be.
- Negligent infliction of emotional distress– This happens when the defendant carries out an act unintentionally that caused you to suffer emotional distress. Take note that a person who sues for emotional distress does not need to be harmed in the event themselves. Most of today’s jurisdictions will allow the recovery of emotional distress injuries if the person was only in the zone of the danger.
An example of this is if a parent was walking with their child when a driver who’s drunk crashed and killed the child. It doesn’t matter if the parent was not injured, the emotional trauma incurred by the parent can suffice as grounds for filing a lawsuit.
Emotional Distress Evidence
Evidence is absolutely a crucial factor in understanding whether or not you have the right to sue someone for emotional distress. If you have plans to sue for mental suffering or other types of stress, there are things that you need to prove in order to back up your claim. Here are some examples of evidence that you can use for your claim:
- The length of time. The longer you’ve been suffering distress, the more credible your case would be.
- Physical injuries. This can be relatively obvious to identify, so if you have physical injuries you have a stronger backup to the claim. Aside from that, there are other conditions like cognitive impairment, ulcers, and headaches that can all be signs of emotional distress.
- Medical reports. If you have a medical report from your psychologist or doctor, then that’s credible evidence to demonstrate that you’re suffering emotional distress. This is why it’s important to consult medical attention immediately after the event.
- The seriousness of the initial incident. The more severe and disturbing the initial incident is, the more the court will be on your side.
- Testimonies and witnesses. The court will consider testimonies of how the incident has affected your life. These can be co-workers, doctors, family, and a friend can all give their testimonies on your behalf. If you got your emotional distress from work, you may bring a compensation lawyer with you.
How to Sue for Emotional Distress
The first thing you need to do is to document emotional distress by seeing a doctor or psychologist who can give a proper diagnosis. There are some cases where the doctor may diagnose you with post-traumatic stress disorder, an illness that normally affects soldiers returning from, but this can develop with any kind of trauma.
The incident that resulted in major stress must have been due to great or horrid negligence and that the actions cause you to harm emotionally. For example, you got into an accident with a careless drunk driver wherein a family member was killed, you are eligible to file a claim for emotional distress due to the laxness of the driver in getting behind the wheel of a car while he’s not sober.
Make sure that you discuss the case with a reliable attorney. He or she will help review and assess your documents and support you take legal actions.
