Mental and Emotional Injuries in Motor Vehicle Accidents

If you’ve been involved in a very serious car accident and you’re looking for a helpful motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD residents recommend, you may have sustained very severe injuries in the crash and you need financial compensation. At Cohen and Cohen, P.C., we understand that injured accident victims often need compensation because they cannot otherwise afford the costly medical care to treat their injuries. By providing our clients with a top motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD has to offer, we make sure to put the interests of our clients before all else — and we fight for the compensation that they rightfully deserve.

In a serious motor vehicle accident, it’s possible for accident victims to sustain several different physical injuries that require treatment. However, as a seasoned motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD trusts will likely know, the injuries resulting from car accidents are not limited to physical ailments. An individual who is involved in a severe vehicle collision can also sustain a great deal of mental and emotional anguish. It’s important to know the role that this can play in a personal injury claim or lawsuit following a serious crash.

Personal Injury Compensation and Non-Physical Injuries

Individuals who are involved in a serious accident may also be able to receive compensation for injuries that are primarily mental and emotional. Even though these conditions may not be as clearly apparent as physical injuries, a motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD offers will attest that mental and emotional injuries are just as legitimate in a claim or lawsuit.

It’s possible for accident victims to suffer from ailments including:

• Anxiety
• Panic attacks
• Depression
• Loss of appetite
• Inability to sleep
• Inability to drive due to fear
• Flashbacks of the accident
• Nightmares

Many car accident settlements take these problems into consideration when determining a reasonable amount of compensation — although claimants do not always specify compensation for this particular reason. A car accident victim who files a claim or lawsuit can request damages for “pain and suffering,” which is the legal term used to describe the mental and emotional anguish of being injured in an accident. In many cases, as a District Heights MD motor vehicle accident lawyer might explain, a person’s mental and emotional anguish would be proportionate to the severity of the accident itself. In other words, an individual who is involved in a very minor accident, but claims a great deal of mental/emotional anguish, is not as likely to receive a large amount of financial compensation.

On the other hand, if the individual sustains a life-threatening injury or is involved in a disastrous accident where other people are gravely injured, it’s likely that a higher claim for pain and suffering will be accepted. Of course, as a motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD can provide would likely attest, it is important to remember that every individual’s case is unique. An individual’s case may involve extenuating circumstances that allow for a higher amount of pain and suffering than one would expect.

There are many ways that a jury, mediator, or arbitrator might put a dollar amount on a person’s pain and suffering after an accident — although, as any motor vehicle accident lawyer in District Heights MD might tell clients, there really is no accurate way of putting a price on mental and emotional injuries.

Why is money awarded for pain and suffering?

For many individuals, no amount of money will treat or fix the mental and emotional anguish they sustain after a severe accident. However, this money isn’t always intended as a method of “treating” mental anguish in the same way that compensation for physical injuries could pay for treatment. Rather, compensation for pain and suffering is often intended as a way of humanizing the victim and legitimizing his/her pain; it’s a way of acknowledging that a person might suffer a great deal from injuries that cannot be seen and cannot necessarily be “fixed.”

Another reason for providing financial compensation is because these ailments can require treatment if the individual develops a serious problem. PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is one condition that can result from a car accident, and it may require professional treatment from a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, or general medical practitioner.

PTSD and Car Accidents

PTSD can occur in any situation where an individual undergoes a very traumatic or life-threatening event. Motor vehicle accidents are just one type of event that may cause a person to develop PTSD. It can develop immediately following an event or it can take days to develop, or even weeks to develop, after the event itself.

PTSD is a “fight or flight” response of the body when it is presented with a life-threatening risk. In situations where a real risk is present, these changes within the body (e.g., shutting down the metabolism, staying awake and vigilant) can help keep the person alive. But the real problem of PTSD is that it can last for months or years after the event occurs, even when there is no real risk.

In addition to the symptoms listed above, an individual who develops PTSD may begin to suffer from extreme depression, hallucinations, loss of memory, development of social phobias, extreme paranoia, inability to focus on other tasks, and an overall inability to process emotions (or, conversely, the inability to feel any emotions at all).

As a seasoned motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD can provide will likely attest, it’s very possible for an individual to develop PTSD after a severe accident. It is not always possible to predict the extent of someone’s mental and physical anguish immediately after an accident. When an individual develops these symptoms in time to include them in an injury claim, and when these symptoms require medical care, it’s possible to receive financial compensation for medical bills just as any other physical injury might justify.

Contact a Local Motor Vehicle Accident Lawyer District Heights MD Residents Trust

At Cohen and Cohen, P.C., we know that motor vehicle accidents can be very traumatizing. The psychological consequences of a terrifying accident can be just as damaging as the physical injuries. In some cases, psychological ailments may even require just as much medical treatment as the person’s physical injuries require.

It’s important for accident victims to know that it’s possible to obtain financial compensation when psychological injuries occur. If you need help from a top motor vehicle accident lawyer District Heights MD trusts because you’ve encountered these issues, contact Cohen and Cohen, P.C. today.