Personal injury claims are made by the victim of an injury caused by someone else. The claims made include losses incurred due to physical injury and psychological injury.
Physical injury entails injury to the body or the property of the victim. The victim can claim compensation for the economic losses such as medical expenses, expenses towards damage to property, loss of job, loss of work days, loss of pay, and more.
Besides these losses, the victim can claim compensation for the psychological injuries he suffers.
What are psychological injuries?
A victim is said to suffer a psychological injury when they need to consult a psychologist or psychiatrist to recover. The psychological injury becomes a personal injury case if the injury is caused due to the negligence of someone else.
The impact of the injury impairs the victim’s ability to perform his routine personal and work-related tasks.
Often psychological injuries may occur alongside physical injuries.
Some examples of psychological injuries are:
- Injury caused because of childhood physical/sexual abuse.
- Trauma is caused when a victim has suffered an injury in an automobile accident. It could also be caused when the victim has witnessed a traumatic accident.
- Psychological injury may also be caused if an individual suffers an injury at the workplace or has witnessed someone else being injured badly.
- If an individual is mistreated in a nursing home or suffers neglect, he could suffer from psychological injury.
- A psychological injury could also be caused due to a defective product.
- Medical negligence can also lead to psychological injuries. Some examples are misdiagnosis, wrong-way surgery, medication errors, etc.
Most of these instances of psychological injury have occurred with physical injuries and the victim has a right to claim compensation for both the physical and psychological injuries caused.
When an individual goes through a traumatic experience, he is likely to have feelings of anger, fear, loss of control, etc. He overcomes most of these issues with time. However, psychological injuries are deeper injuries in which the symptoms worsen over time and can lead to complications.
Some common types of psychological injuries that may be caused because of someone else are:
- PTSD(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Concussion
- Chronic Pain
If an individual suffers psychological injury either because of a traumatic physical injury caused by someone else or because of the carelessness of someone else, you can claim compensation. A psychological injury comes under the purview of personal injury and is tried in a civil court.
The plaintiff in the case can claim compensation for both economic and non-economic damages. A personal injury lawyer can help you if you are suffering a psychological injury.
A psychological injury can be traumatic and the victim can find it difficult to cope with. It can also take years to recover. Only an experienced personal injury lawyer will be able to accurately assess the economic and non-economic losses you have incurred because of the carelessness of the defendant.
Autrey Law Firm is one of the best law firms with expert lawyers who specialize in different areas of law. Our personal injury lawyers will help you in case you are suffering from a physical or psychological injury.
