Psychiatric injury—establishing liability


Published by a ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû PI & Clinical Negligence expert
Practice notes

Psychiatric injury—establishing liability


Published by a ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû PI & Clinical Negligence expert

Practice notes
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Liability for psychiatric injury is dependent in part on the nature of the injuries suffered and the manner in which they were sustained.

Classifying the victim

Where a claimant suffers both physical and psychiatric injury (even if the physical injury was very minor), they will be entitled to recover damages in the usual way subject to issues of causation etc. There will in such a case be no need to prove the foreseeability of the psychiatric injury if the physical injury was itself foreseeable.

The complexity arises where a claimant has suffered psychiatric injury but is physically unharmed.

In cases where claimants have suffered ‘pure’ psychiatric injury as a result of an accident or event, the law draws a distinction between:

  1. •

    primary victims—see below

  2. •

    secondary victims—see below

Primary victims

Primary victims are directly involved in the event and usually, but not necessarily, have physical injuries as well as psychiatric injuries.

For further guidance, see Practice Note: Psychiatric injury—primary victims.

Establishing liability—common law

To establish liability at common law a primary victim must show

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Damages definition
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The monetary compensation awarded by law to a person for the legal wrong done to him.

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