Psychiatric injury—secondary victims

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Practice notes

Psychiatric injury—secondary victims

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Practice notes

The development of the law

The case of Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police has long been the lead authority for claims made by Secondary victims. The law developed after Alcock, often with inconsistent judgments. The Supreme Court in Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has now brought about a number of changes to the law and much-needed clarity for practitioners. It is important to understand the position both prior to and post the case of Paul as there has been refinement and clarification of the principles, although not every aspect has been changed. This Practice Note is therefore split into pre-Paul and post-Paul sections. The changes made by Paul are explicitly highlighted in the Practice Note. For further analysis of the case, see News Analysis: Landmark Supreme Court decision on secondary victims (Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust).

It is crucial to understand that secondary victim claims constitute an exception to the general rule that at common law one person has no legal right of redress (compensation) in connection with the physical well-being

Andrew Wilson

Consultant Solicitor

Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience of working in the fields of personal injury and occupational disease litigation, acting for both claimants and defendants. He trained at L Bingham & Co, gaining early experience in a number of important high profile claims involving the MIB. During the 1990s Andrew worked at Hextalls and then Kennedys, predominantly for defendants across a range of motor, employers’ liability and public liability matters many of which involved serious injuries or death. More recently, he has dealt with cases for claimants who have suffered serious injuries or occupational disease. He was a partner in a large specialist practice. He has provided seminars to solicitors and other legal professionals both for an external conference company and in house on the workings of the Civil Procedure Rules in the context of personal injury claims, amongst other subjects.

He has now set up his own legal consultancy, providing advice and support to solicitors, particularly a specialist London practice, in connection with fatal accidents and very serious injury cases such as brain injury, mostly in the High Court. He has continued to develop his education and training activities, providing seminars and contributing articles and commentaries to legal information services.

Since his training, Andrew has retained a particular interest in issues of motor indemnity and the operation of the Road Traffic Act and Article 75.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Secondary victim definition

What does Secondary victim mean?

is one who suffers psychiatric injury not by being directly involved in the incident but by witnessing it and either seeing injury being sustained by a primary victim or fearing injury to a primary victim.

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