How is emotional distress damages in a car accident case determined?

The emotional damages component of a car accident lawsuit can often yield significant pay-out if emotional distress can be established. Because of this, a lot of effort, time, and money, is spent determining the validity of a person’s emotional distress claims. It is important to do this, for in life you have fraudsters who will try their best to fool, deceive, and trick people. Emotional damages payments are quite often abused by fraudsters and con artists – which is why so much effort is spent on determining the validity of them.

In this article, we are going to explain how emotional distress damages are established in a car accident lawsuit. If you are the person suffering from emotional distress, then you are likely reading this because you want to know what testing you will have to endure, and rightly so.

Here is how emotional distress damages in a car accident case are determined.

The Case Itself

First and foremost, emotional damages are assessed on a case-by-case basis. The case itself is carefully reviewed to establish whether or not emotional distress could occur. While our emotions are subjective, it is fair to say that you will not become terrified of street lamps if you walk into one, right? The case will be carefully examined by psychologists and doctors who will report their findings to the court and explain whether or not they believe such distress could occur from the accident itself.

Your Attorney

Your attorney will also help to determine whether or not distress could occur, and whether or not you are being genuine. Car accidents are traumatising and they are on the rise. All across Canada, from Vancouver to Victoria, they are happening with alarming frequency. Finding a Vancouver personal injury lawyer, or a Victoria personal injury lawyer will help you to get justice for your accident. An attorney will help to determine the extent of your emotional distress and will use it in the case to fight for your compensation. Your attorney will be a big part of determining how distressed you are.

Psychology Report

For cases where emotional distress is being argued, a psychologist’s report will be required. Psychology reports will help the court to ascertain whether or not your claims are genuine. When you are attending a meeting with a psychologist, it is important for you to be as forthcoming, truthful, and honest as you can possibly be. Withholding information related to your case will be a detriment to it and will potentially make you look very bad. A psychologist’s report is necessary in an emotional distress case, so be sure to be as truthful as possible.

Severity

The severity of your emotional distress will determine how much compensation you are entitled to. If you are so distressed that your life will never be the same, then you will receive a huge pay-out. If you are mildly distressed and need time to recover, then you will receive a lesser pay-out. If you are hardly distressed, but only slightly, then you may not receive a pay-out for the distress component of your personal injury lawsuit. The severity of your distress is a very important part of receiving compensation. If you are not severely distressed, there is very little point in making a claim.

Your Behaviour

There is a very good chance that when you are making a claim for emotional distress that investigators will be paid to watch you and to ensure that you are not making fraudulent claims. Your behaviour and the way you act during and after your claim have a huge bearing on how your claim will be dealt with. If you are not being honest, then you will be shut down and potentially arrested for fraud. Your behaviour and the way you interact with people will also play a big role in how the court decides to act.

Your Testimony

In a lawsuit where you are the claimant, you will likely be called up to give testimony. Your testimony will also have a large part to play in whether or not you are awarded emotional distress damages. When you are giving your testimony, it is important that you are honest, like we have already said, and do not attempt to mislead the court. Attempts at misleading the court may be noticed and you can have your lawsuit thrown out and you yourself can get into a lot of trouble. Giving an honest account of events.

In this article, we hope to have explained to you how your emotional damages are determined in car accident cases. We hope that you have found this article educational and informative and that you will return to visit us soon. Thank you for reading this article, people!