Emotional Distress

Even if there was no risk of physical injury, it is still possible to file a claim for emotional distress based purely on financial loss, such as a damaged vehicle, although doing so will be much more difficult.

Examples of how these rules function include:

With a Physical Injury: After being involved in a car accident, a woman sustains severe burns to her face. She is not only suffering from a physical injury, but she also finds that people stare at her and whisper about how she looks. The humiliation contributes to emotional distress and is directly associated with the physical injury. Her claim that she experienced emotional distress would most likely be compensated.

Without a Physical Injury: A man is in the process of transporting the ashes of his late father to a lake, where he plans to disperse them in accordance with the wishes of his late father. On the way, his vehicle was involved in a collision with a truck. The man suffered only minor injuries, but the car is a total loss, and his deceased father’s ashes were scattered in the collision. The man is overcome with sorrow and begins to seek help through psychotherapy or counseling. Because this establishes a connection between emotional distress and monetary loss, the man may have a case for emotional distress. He must provide evidence that his counseling is linked to the loss of the ashes.