Typically, when it comes to personal injury lawsuits, you will receive damages known as “pain and suffering” when you have suffered emotionally. There are many mental effects a car accident can have on you. Perhaps you have adopted a fear of driving after your accident, have depression caused by limited mobility due to injuries, have flashbacks of the accident, or find it difficult to get back on your feet and enjoy the things you once have before the accident took place. What many people fail to understand is that the emotional effects of an accident can have a huge, lasting impact on your life for months or years to come. This is why you may qualify for pain and suffering damages, which cover mental distress from an injury and so much more. When a party is found negligent, they may owe you these damages as well as physical economic costs.
Showing Your Emotional Injuries
There are minor emotional distress injuries and some that are not so minor. For instance, the less severe symptoms encompass emotional anguish and distress, fear, and anger associated with the accident. However, there are more severe symptoms as well, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that happens when you replay the accident over and over again inside your head. But how do you prove your claim and that the injuries you have sustained are real feelings associated with the accident? Here are the five ways to prove your claim of emotional distress:
Intensity: If you have received minor emotional distress, you may not be able to recover much in damages. However, if your emotional distress is extremely severe and causes a huge impact on your life, you may be eligible for more compensation. For instance, you are most likely to recover from accidents that involve some type of severe injury coupled with emotional anguish.
Duration: If you have persistent and recurring pain related to your distress, you are more likely to recover more, since you have suffered the distress for quite some time.
Bodily Harm: You may be able to compensate more if your emotional injuries have caused you physical harm, such as ulcers, headaches, and other physical signs of severe stress on the body.
Cause: The more extreme the accident, the more recovery. For example, if you sustained a head-on collision with a truck, you are more likely to recover more than a simple rear-end accident at low speeds by another vehicle.
Medical Report: A psychological doctor will be able to support every claim that you have made and show that you have, indeed, suffered emotionally after the accident.
As you can see, making a claim for emotional distress after an accident is not as easy as it seems. Showing viability of your claims is one of the most difficult aspects in these cases. If you have sustained injuries in a car accident and need our help, give us a call today at the Accident Law Group at 602-262-4254.
