When you think of a car accident, the first things that come to mind are twisted metal and broken bones. These are, of course, the biggest cause for concern when it comes to damages that can occur after a car accident, but they are far from it.

There is hidden damage that occurs after a car accident, and that is emotional and psychological trauma. Being involved in a motor vehicle crash can leave you scarred mentally and scared to get behind the wheel, making you feel vulnerable and defenseless. With this in mind, is it possible to sue for emotional distress? Find out here.

1. Determining the Type of Pain and Suffering

The type of pain and suffering you may have faced in this car accident could leave you psychologically traumatized, which is taking a major toll on your life. It could cause you to miss work, live in fear, and any other manner of mental barrier between you and living a healthy and normal life. 

There are different types of emotional distress that fall under this category of pain and suffering. Among them include anxiety, depression, humiliation, frustration, guilt, and insomnia. These are common types of emotional damage that can occur after a car accident and may require serious psychological help. This emotional strain can be incredibly difficult to handle for many and helps legitimize the claims that this accident directly resulted in emotional distress.

2. Intent to Cause Distress

It is much harder to prove that emotional distress was intentional when it comes to car accidents because of the fact that a car accident can happen to anyone. It is entirely possible that someone chose to drive erratically and strike fear into the hearts of other drivers, so it is not unheard of that the intent is clear as day. Winning a case of this kind of matter is easier when there was clear intent on the part of the perpetrator to cause damages, but it does not mean that intent is necessarily required.

The at-fault party may have conducted behavior in a manner that was conducive to potentially causing physical or emotional damages, such as stunt driving or disobeying the rules of the road. This is difficult to argue, but the experts at theclarklawoffice.com show why it is so important to see professional help to validate the argument on your behalf. Finding fault beyond the initial damage of the accident can help protect from the emotional strain of vehicular incidents.

3. Evidence for Your Emotional Distress 

Just like proving the intent, there need to be compelling arguments on your behalf that you did indeed suffer emotional distress that has had a significant enough impact on your life to warrant making a claim for compensation. Telling the judge that you feel you are owed money because you are more sad or frustrated now is not compelling enough. You need to prove that your life is much different now post-accident.

This could be through the persuasiveness of your argument that you have trouble sleeping and you constantly awake with night terrors because of bad thoughts related to a driving accident if that was how your emotional distress materialized. Similarly, you need to receive a diagnosis from your doctor or therapist to help corroborate professional approval that you are experiencing psychological effects from the incident. It can feel harder to provide this evidence given that it is not objective like a damaged bumper, but it is doable and is necessary to help you sue the at-fault party.

4. Compensation Needed

You and your legal guidance will need to decide on how much compensation you are fighting for. It is rather subjective on how much the damages can be worth for emotional distress because there is no real dollar value to place on things like insomnia or frustrated feelings. There are objective values like time spent missing work, costs for medication to help with emotional issues, and the cost of therapy/counseling services.

Finding the right amount of compensation is necessary to help you get what you deserve in the end and find justice. There are also possible claimants, like family, who are victims of the emotional distress inflicted upon you. Parents or partners that are emotionally distressed over the accident are possible to make a case for/with you.

Emotional distress may not be the first type of damage that comes to mind when you imagine a car accident, but it is the hidden cost of a traumatic event. Suing for damages regarding your emotional state is entirely doable and recommended for those who experienced a serious and emotionally debilitating incident.