When Can an Injured Person Make a Claim for Emotional Distress?

Being hurt in an accident can cause more than just physical injuries. In Indiana, victims who experience psychological problems after a traumatic incident can seek compensation for emotional distress.

Winning money for emotional distress will hinge upon how significant the person’s mental suffering really is. In the past, Indiana courts only allowed people who were physically impacted by the accident to recover for emotional harm. Today, the ability to recover has been broadened to include certain witnesses to the event. But because it’s not easy to put a dollar amount on someone’s emotional suffering, it’s wise to speak to an experienced personal injury attorney instead of trying to settle a claim on your own.

At Truitt Law Offices, we have the knowledge and experience needed to effectively handle your emotional distress claim and prove the extent of your injuries. Our compassionate personal injury attorneys are committed to helping clients recover maximum compensation for all the ways that accidents affect their lives.

For more than 40 years, we’ve been helping personal injury victims in Fort Wayne and the surrounding areas get the money they deserve for injuries caused by others’ negligence. Let us do the same for you.

If you’re suffering from emotional distress after an accident caused by someone else, our skilled personal injury lawyers will fight for your rights and help you get on the road to recovery.

It’s simple to get started. Call, fill out our contact form, or chat with us online to set up your free consultation.

What Is Emotional Distress?

Some people come out of an accident with little to no emotional scars. Others are severely impacted. Some of the common conditions associated with emotional distress claims include:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Anger
• Difficulty sleeping
• Humiliation
• Irritability
• New fears related to the accident (e.g., fear of driving after a crash, fear of dogs after an attack, etc.)
• Nightmares
• Physical signs of stress, like headaches or ulcers
• Mood swings
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

When these conditions impact your ability to enjoy life or function the way you once did, you could have a valid emotional distress claim.

Who Can Receive Emotional Distress Damages in Indiana?

The law limits who can file emotional distress claims to certain individuals. These parties include:

• The victim who was physically injured in the accident
• Another person who was directly involved in the incident
• A bystander who either witnessed the accident or came upon the scene soon after the death or injury of a loved one

How Do You Prove Emotional Distress Damages?

To win a claim for emotional distress, you need to prove that:

• The distress is ongoing or more than just momentary.
• The distress was directly caused by the defendant’s actions or conduct.
• The distress is medically significant.

There are several ways that emotional distress can be proven. Most importantly, you should have medical documentation of the psychological effects of the accident. This can come from your medical records, prescriptions for anxiety or other medications, and testimony from medical experts.

Sometimes, the psychological impact of an accident prevents individuals from returning to work. In those instances, statements from employers and co-workers may also support your emotional distress claim.

Keeping a journal can also show the duration and intensity of your emotional distress and its impact on your life. For example, the journal might include notes on your mental and emotional health after the accident and any day-to-day effects that you notice.

How Much Can You Claim for Emotional Distress?

It’s challenging to determine exactly how much a person’s emotional distress is worth. Courts don’t give juries a specific formula to follow to calculate an amount. Instead, they must consider:

• How much a victim’s injuries have impacted their daily life and normal activities
• The severity of a victim’s physical injuries
• Any permanent disfigurement caused by their injuries, such as facial scarring

Many victims suffer exorbitant costs because of emotional distress. They might need to see a psychologist for the rest of their lives. The distress might prevent the victim from being able to enjoy life, work, and provide for their family again.

Similar to calculations for physical injuries, damages for emotional distress shouldn’t just cover the harm that a victim is currently suffering. This compensation should also cover the costs of the emotional harm they are likely to have to endure in the future because of the accident.

Is Emotional Distress the Same as Pain and Suffering?

Pain and suffering is a type of noneconomic damage that victims can claim after an accident. It refers both to the physical pain that the victim experiences due to his/her injuries as well as the emotional trauma suffered as a result of the accident.

Emotional distress is one of the mental injuries that falls under the umbrella of pain and suffering. It encompasses any kind of detrimental psychological impact that stems from the accident.

Are There Different Types of Emotional Distress Claims?

While emotional distress is often a component of a pain and suffering claim, it is also part of other types of injuries that victims might claim, such as:

• Intentional infliction of emotional distress: Occurs when someone deliberately does something that they know or suspect will cause someone else significant and enduring emotional harm.
• Negligent infliction of emotional distress: Happens when a victim suffers emotional harm because of another party’s reckless actions.

It’s very important to speak with an experienced Indiana personal injury lawyer when pursuing a claim for emotional distress. At Truitt Law Offices, our attorneys will outline your legal options, investigate your claim, and help put a full and fair value on your case.

How Much Money Can You Get for Emotional Distress?

Since emotional distress is considered a noneconomic damage, many states limit the amount of money that victims can get for this type of injury. In Indiana, these caps depend on the type of personal injury claim that you are filing.

For example, the most money that a victim can get for a medical malpractice claim is typically $1.25 million, while the most a victim can get in a claim against the state is usually $700,000.

Other Indiana laws limit whether a person can get money for emotional distress as well. Under the state’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims, victims typically have only two years to file for compensation. Fail to file by the deadline, and you could lose your right to any money for your injuries altogether.

The amount of money you are able to recover could also depend on whether you share fault for the accident that injured you. Indiana’s comparative negligence rule allows for courts to reduce or eliminate victims’ access to compensation if they were partially responsible for the accident.

Get Help With Your Emotional Distress Claim

If you are experiencing emotional problems after being injured in an accident in Indiana, you don’t have to suffer in silence. The proven personal injury attorneys at Truitt Law Offices can craft a strong and solid legal claim for emotional distress for you. To learn more about your legal options, call or contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

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Fort Wayne Law Firm Fights to Help Local Businesses with Business Interruption Claim

The attorneys at Truitt Law Offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana, are committed to helping local businesses that have business interruption claims due to the coronavirus pandemic fight for full and fair compensation from insurers that deny business interruption claims.

Truitt Law Offices has filed a lawsuit on behalf of John Sohn, owner of Kaysan’s 5th Down Bar in Fort Wayne. Sohn had to close his business in March and lay off 19 employees after Gov. Eric Holcomb issued the first of several executive orders closing all restaurants and bars in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Sohn had obtained business interruption insurance from Society Insurance to protect his business from situations that threaten his livelihood and are beyond his control. Sohn said that the insurance company denied his claim when he submitted a business disruption claim for the loss of the food and beverage that he had to throw out because it was going to expire while the business was shuttered.

When Society Insurance denied Sohn’s claim arising from the state-ordered closure of his business, he turned to Truitt Law Offices for help. The law firm has filed a lawsuit claiming that Society Insurance has breached the obligations it assumed by selling the insurance policy. The lawsuit asks the courts to order Society Insurance to honor its business interruption policy and pay Sohn’s claim.

“We have insurance to cover business interruption and they do everything they can not to pay you,” Sohn told Fox 55 WFFT. “I don’t think it’s fair and I don’t know why we have insurance if they are never going to pay.”

What is Business Interruption Insurance?

Business or income interruption insurance coverage is typically purchased to guard against income lost during an interruption in a business’s ability to operate as usual due to some form of disaster, like a fire or tornado. Policyholders file claims based on “physical loss or damage” when the loss is caused by situations the policy promises to cover.

A business interruption policy may contain language referring to losses “due to outside forces” and/or may specifically list exceptions, such as to exclude losses during a pandemic.

“If Society Insurance had wanted to exclude pandemic-related losses under the Plaintiffs’ [Sohn and his business] policies — as many other insurers have done in other policies — it easily could have attempted to do so on the front-end with an express exclusion,” Truitt Law Offices says in the lawsuit.

Instead, Society Insurance waited until after it collected the business owner’s insurance premiums and after a pandemic and related closure orders to try to limit its losses by erroneously asserting that coronavirus is not “physical loss,” and therefore is not covered by the policy, the suit says.

The lawsuit says further that, as a result of the governor’s closure orders, “Plaintiffs have been forced to halt ordinary operations, resulting in substantial lost revenues and forcing Plaintiffs to furlough or lay off the majority of their employees.”

The complaints says the policy issued by Society Insurance says the insurer will pay for the actual loss of “Business Income” sustained by Plaintiffs “due to the necessary suspension” of Plaintiffs’ operations during the period of business interruption caused by “direct physical loss of or damage to covered property” at the insured’s premises.

Society Insurance Under Fire for Bad Faith Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Nearly 20 businesses operating restaurants in the Chicago area have filed lawsuits against Society Insurance over the denial of business interruption claims by the Wisconsin-based insurer, according to Insurance Journal.

As in the Indiana claim, the Chicago-area businesses say they are due payment under commercial business insurance policies, “which provide coverage for losses incurred due to a ‘necessary suspension’ of their operations, including when their businesses are forced to close due to a government order.”

The Chicago businesses claim Society Insurance issued blanket denials of claims for business interruption losses related to coronavirus closure orders. The Truitt Law Offices filing makes a similar complaint, stating, “Society Insurance has accepted the policy premiums [from Sohn] with no intention of providing coverage due to direct physical loss and/or from a civil authority shutdown due to a global pandemic virus.”

‘Physical Loss’ in Coronavirus Business Loss Claims

The key issue in business interruption lawsuits growing out of the coronavirus pandemic may be whether the restaurant incurred “direct physical loss or damage.”

As The National Law Review notes, in Wakefern Food Corp. v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co., the Court determined that the term “physical damage” was ambiguous and should be construed in favor of coverage for a grocery store that suffered loss following a blackout.

Similarly, in Gregory Packaging Inc. v. Travelers Prop. Cas. Co. of Am., the Court found that “courts considering non-structural property damage claims have found that buildings rendered uninhabitable by dangerous gasses or bacteria suffered direct physical loss or damage.”

Further, the Truitt Law Offices lawsuit filed on behalf of Sohn and Kaysan’s 5th Down Bar maintains that the Society Insurance policy not only fails to exclude viruses, but also covers shutdowns ordered by civil authorities.

About Truitt Law Offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Truitt Law Offices put more than four decades of legal skills to work to help injured businesses, families and individuals from Fort Wayne, Huntington, Indianapolis and throughout the state of Indiana.

Richard T. Truitt is a Huntington, IN, native who studied science before he became a lawyer. After receiving his undergraduate degree in Biology at Manchester College in 1971, he obtained a master’s degree in Biology at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne. He earned his law degree from the University of Toledo School of Law in 1975 and was admitted to the Indiana Bar the following year. He practices law throughout Indiana.

Call our law offices in Huntington and Fort Wayne at (888) 663-6849 or contact us online to schedule your free initial legal consultation. See how our 40 years of experience in Indiana personal injury cases can make a difference in your life.

The post Fort Wayne Law Firm Fights to Help Local Businesses with Business Interruption Claim appeared first on Truitt Law Offices.

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