General Damages for Psychological Injury

General damages for psychological injury pay for the anxiety, depression and post-traumatic symptoms a crash or a fall leaves behind. Courts treat that harm as an injury in its own right, not as a softer version of a physical one. This chapter states what has to be proved and what moves the number, and the rest of the series sits in the general damages guide.

A Psychiatric Diagnosis Is Not the Entry Ticket

The Supreme Court of Canada held in Saadati v Moorhead that a claim for mental injury does not fail because no expert attached a label from a diagnostic manual. The court needs evidence that the person’s mental state changed and stayed changed. Testimony from the people who live with the person, and from a treating doctor, can carry that on its own. A diagnosis still helps, because it organises the evidence and gives the defence something to answer, but its absence is not fatal. The decision is on CanLII.

The Harm Must Be Serious and Prolonged

Mustapha v Culligan of Canada Ltd set the threshold. Upset, fear, disappointment and worry that a person of ordinary fortitude would work through are part of life and are not compensable. The disturbance has to be serious and it has to last. In practice the dividing line is function: whether the person stopped driving, stopped working, stopped sleeping, or withdrew from the people around them, and for how long.

General Damages for Psychological Injury Follow Lost Function

Once the threshold is passed, the award is valued the same way as any other injury. A judge compares the reported awards for people whose lives were disrupted to a similar degree. How long the symptoms last matters more than any other factor. Symptoms that resolve within a year sit far below symptoms that persist for years with treatment and still limit what the person can do. Treatment records matter, because a gap in counselling invites the argument that the problem eased.

Psychological Harm Usually Arrives Attached to a Physical Injury

Most of these claims are made by people who were also hurt physically, and the psychological component is then valued as part of one global award instead of added separately. Pain that will not resolve is the most common driver, which is why this chapter runs alongside the chapter on chronic pain. Serious psychological harm is common in the firm’s car accident files, and how a claim is built from the first meeting is set out in what we can do for you. If symptoms started after a collision, say so early, because a late first mention is the argument the insurer will make.