Does Harm to Your Mental Health Count as a Personal Injury?

Mental health injury is a real issue and a type of personal injury. If you think you may have suffered emotional damages due to the negligence of another party, it is worth your while to determine whether you are entitled to compensation. We are Katz Injury Law, the experienced personal injury attorneys serving Philadelphia, PA. We offer a free case evaluation and we can look at your situation from a legal perspective.

Defining Mental Health Damages

When a business or individual intentionally or negligently commits an action that causes a person to suffer psychological harm, it is considered mental health damages. The terms “emotional damages” and “mental health damages” have the same meaning.

Pain and Suffering

“Pain and suffering” is a category of mental health damages due to physical wound injuries.

Some examples include:

• Forgetfulness due to brain trauma
• Insecure feelings because of scars resulting from wound injuries
• Other mental health damages because of physical wounds

Infliction of Emotional Distress

Infliction of emotional distress is when a person has continued emotional responses from a traumatic experience, but they were not physically injured.

Some examples include:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from witnessing the death of someone
• Anxiety from witnessing a loved one’s medical malpractice
• Other events from experiences that cause harmful, emotional responses

A common symptom of PTSD is numb feelings. This is feeling emotionally blank, depressed, and having a loss of interest in things you once enjoyed.

Other symptoms of PTSD may include:

• Guilt
• Having nightmares
• Hopelessness
• Hard to concentrate
• Uncontrollable anger
• Worry

Insights About Proving Your Case

A pain and suffering case is easier to prove than the infliction of emotional distress. This is because there is physical proof of the inflicted injury such as scars, brain injury, and wounds.

To prove infliction of emotional distress, the emotional trauma that occurred must have been present within the “zone of danger.” Therefore, if you did not witness the event, it may be difficult to prove emotional distress.

It is also important to establish the relationship between the accident victim and yourself. You and the victim must be closely related.

Mental Health Injuries Caused by Negligence

If the injury was not intentional, you may have an emotional distress case due to negligence.

Some examples include:

• Medical malpractice
• Premises liability such as amusement park injury
• Automobile accidents

Mental Health Injuries Caused by Intentional Actions

Intentionally causing mental health injuries include those that a person inflicts on purpose.

Examples include witnessing:

• Murder
• Abuse
• Sexual violation
• Other intentional mental health injuries caused by witnessing traumatic events

Katz Injury Law is Your Legal Arm that Reaches for Justice

Our winning reputation extends to several areas, including personal injury attorney services in the Media, Pa area.

Get in touch with us by calling (610) 789.3240, or if you prefer, complete our easy online contact form now. You may be able to receive compensation for your mental health injury, so contact us today!