Brampton personal injury lawyers regularly deal with cases where people have been seriously injured in accidents. Be it an automobile accident or a slip and fall mishap, the consequences are often disastrous for not just the victim but also for the entire family.

Your Personal Injury Claim: Defining Emotional Distress

Accidents are most often caused by someone’s fault or negligence. The injured are entitled to seek compensation for the injuries, losses and damage suffered as a result.

If you or a dear one has been involved in an accident contact the nearest personal injury lawyer in Brampton without delay. You may be entitled to compensation.

The losses and damages can be classified as physical, financial and emotional. It is relatively easy to identify, categorize and quantify physical and financial losses. The actual injuries suffered by the victim are obvious in terms of wounds, cuts, lacerations, bleeding, burns, bruises, broken bones, damage to internal organs and structures, amputation, disability, disfigurement or even death. Financial losses can similarly be quantified in terms of the medical and rehabilitation expenditure, loss of earnings/wages, loss of earning-capacity, cost of home maintenance, care-giver/attendant fees, cost of modifications to home/work-place, need for purchasing mobility and prosthetic devices, etc.

However, emotional costs are not very easy to quantify. This is because they are entirely subjective and can only be evaluated based on the victim’s own reports, behavior and reactions.

An experienced Brampton car accident lawyer or Brampton slip and fall injury lawyer can help you to assemble robust evidence to back your claim.

How Is Emotional Distress Defined?

The body experiences severe trauma and shock following an accident and this may continue for the duration of or long after the physical recovery process has been completed. It can be difficult to distinguish between immediate shock reaction/trauma and the serious, long-term emotional damage that can inhibit your ability to function normally, carry out your daily routine, go to work, carry on normal relationships and also affect your ability to take care of yourself.

Such long-term emotional distress can be measured and recognized through certain signs and behaviors or the victim’s own reporting of the experiences. They include:

• Anxiety, fears and phobias
• Panic attacks
• Sleep disturbances, insomnia, nightmares
• Bed-wetting in children
• Mood swings, altered temperament
• Loss of appetite
• Compulsive behaviors
• Cognitive and memory changes
• Lack of concentration and focus
• Depression, suicidal tendencies
• Frequent flashbacks to the traumatic incident
• Survivor guilt

Emotional distress can also consist of unexplained physical symtoms and psycho-somatic disorders, lowered immunity and eating disorders.

Presenting The Proof

While making the compensation claim, damages can be broadly classified under:

• Loss of wages/income
• Medical expenses
• Pain and suffering

The “pain and suffering” aspect deals with the physical and psychological experience of pain and emotional distress. Both these are subjective experiences and almost impossible to quantify and pin-point. However, every effort is made by our experienced 24×7 injury lawyers to ensure that all aspects of damages are presented in court or during settlement negotiations.

We work with a multi-disciplinary team of experts that includes doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, health experts etc to evaluate the nature and extent of emotional distress and document its impact on your life and that of your family.