Is Emotional Distress a Personal Injury Claim?

If you're injured in an accident and you file a personal injury claim, you can usually get compensation ("damages" in the language of the law) for your emotional harm, in addition to recovery for the more straightforward losses (medical bills, lost wages, etc.) related to your physical injuries.

In some situations, and depending on the law in your state, you might even be able to file a standalone claim for emotional distress without any accompanying physical injury.

What Is Emotional Distress In Personal Injury Law?

Emotional distress damages can be a major component of recovery in many kinds of personal injury cases. This is a way of capturing the psychological impact of your injuries and your medical treatment on your daily life.

Emotional distress is a very subjective type of harm, and it varies from person to person, so there is no universal definition in personal injury law. But emotional distress often includes:

• nervous shock
• sleep loss
• anxiety
• depression
• humiliation
• grief
• stress, and
• fear.

Emotional Distress Is Usually Part of an Injured Claimant's "Pain and Suffering"

In many personal injury cases, emotional distress is a component of the injured person's "pain and suffering." This is a category of losses that's known as "non-economic damages," since this kind of harm isn't easy to put a dollar figure on (unlike medical bills and lost income, which are considered "economic damages.")

So, some real world examples of emotional distress in the context of a personal injury claim might be:

• extreme fear of driving after a car accident
• agoraphobia after an assault, and
• depression during a long rehabilitation after a slip and fall.

Learn more about different kinds of damages in personal injury cases.

What Is "Mental Anguish" In a Personal Injury Case?

In the eyes of the law, the terms "emotional distress" and "mental anguish" can really be used interchangeably. In many states, the definition of "pain and suffering" that's found in jury instructions includes the term "mental anguish." So, all of these terms can really be folded into the larger concept of an injured person's non-economic damages.

Emotional Distress Can Be Part of a Personal Injury Settlement

Even if you don’t file a lawsuit for your injuries, you may be able to negotiate a personal injury settlement with an insurance company that includes compensation for emotional distress, on top of the cost of your medical treatment and other more straightforward losses.

But like any other category of harm or loss resulting from an injury, you'll need to be able to prove the nature and extent of your emotional distress in order to get fair compensation for it.

How Do You Prove Emotional Distress In a Personal Injury Case?

If your injuries have spurred you to file a personal injury lawsuit, it's likely that you’re seeking medical treatment. In addition to your physical injuries, tell your doctor about any psychological symptoms you’ve experienced since the accident. Your doctor might refer you to a mental health professional, like a:

• licensed counselor or clinician
• therapist
• clinical social worker
• psychologist, or
• psychiatrist.

If you're referred to a mental health professional, your treatment records and bills become part of your case, just like records and bills relating to treatment of your physical injuries—and can be used to help set the overall value of your personal injury case.

It's also a good idea to keep a daily journal or diary in which you record how you're feeling in light of the accident and your injuries, and the (big and small) ways in which your life has been affected.

Generally speaking, you’ll need to show that your emotional distress:

• is ongoing
• affects your life on a daily, even hourly basis, and
• is directly related to the physical injuries the defendant caused you to suffer.

While people with pre-existing psychological conditions aren't precluded from collecting emotional distress damages in a personal injury claim, it helps if you can definitively show that your emotional distress didn't begin until after your accident.

Can I Make an Emotional Distress Claim Without Physical Injuries?

It depends on the law in your state, and the nature of the incident that led to your claim. If you're making a standalone claim for emotional distress (with no accompanying claims for physical injury), it's probably going to be one of two distinct types of cases: intentional infliction of emotional distress, or negligent infliction of emotional distress.

What Is Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress?

A claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) is different from most kind of injury cases, where the at-fault person's mere "negligence" is enough to trigger liability. An IIED claim usually requires outrageous or extreme conduct on the part of the defendant, of the type that's likely to cause mental anguish or distress.

Actual physical harm isn't a requirement for this kind of lawsuit, but threats of physical harm are often part of the underlying scenario.

Learn more about intentional infliction of emotional distress.

What Is Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress?

A claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress doesn't need to include physical injury, but most states usually require the claimant to:

• have witnessed a traumatic event (caused by the defendant's negligence), or
• have been placed in legitimate fear for their safety (again, by the defendant's negligent conduct).

States apply different rules to NIED claims, so be sure to understand the nuances in your own state. Get more details on negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Whether emotional distress is a component of a claim for physical injury, or it forms the basis for a standalone claim, proving this kind of harm can be a real challenge, and having an experienced lawyer on your side can be a difference-maker. Learn more about how a personal injury lawyer can help and get tips on finding the right injury lawyer for you and your case.