A car accident can cause significant damage, both physically and emotionally. While many people focus on the outward damage and physical injuries, the emotional and mental trauma of a California motor vehicle accident can be significant, affecting many areas of a victim’s life.
If you suffered injuries in a car accident, your pain and suffering may be much more than skin-deep. It may be possible for you to claim damages related to emotional harm in addition to the physical damages and financial harm you suffered. Proving emotional duress in a civil claim can be complicated, but you may find it beneficial to explore this possibility.
How You Can Prove You Suffered Emotional Duress
Proving emotional duress is not always easy. It can be difficult to provide evidence validating that your accident had a significant negative impact on your life. However, you may be able to successfully pursue damages for emotional duress with the following:
- Duration of emotional duress: In order to secure compensation for emotional duress, you must have proof of continuing and consistent pain, even long after the accident.
- Related physical injuries: Physical evidence of emotional harm, such as ulcers and other stress-related aliments can strengthen your claim for damages for emotional duress.
- Proof of intense emotional suffering: Your claim must bring evidence that your emotional suffering was such that you deserve compensation as a result.
- Documentation from medical professionals: Notes from psychologists and doctors regarding your physical condition and the emotional duress you are experiencing can bolster your civil claim.
The more extreme the underlying cause of your emotional duress, the more likely you will be to successfully claim restitution for emotional and mental harm that occurred as a result of a serious motor vehicle accident.
Fighting For the Compensation You Deserve
After an accident, you may not know where to turn or what kind of damages you may be entitled to receive. In order to better understand what you should do next, you may find it helpful to seek a complete evaluation of your potential case. This can help you know how to proceed, including if you should seek damages related to emotional duress.
The aftermath of a serious car accident can affect you in various ways, some of them unseen. You have the right to seek restitution for all of the suffering you experienced, physically, financially and emotionally. A car accident can be extremely traumatic, but you do not have to walk through the aftermath without support and guidance.