What happens when you have suffered mental and emotional damages apart from the physical injuries in your malpractice case? You can definitely claim damages for your emotional trauma and injuries, provided you have also suffered physical injuries.
What happens when you have suffered mental and emotional damages apart from the physical injuries in your malpractice case? You can definitely claim damages for your emotional trauma and injuries, provided you have also suffered physical injuries.
Without any physical injuries if you try to claim emotional injuries, due to the wrongdoing of a doctor or hospital, your medical malpractice case may not be even accepted. Additionally, most lawyers will not take such a case, since they know that when people claim only emotional trauma then they are likely to have lot of emotional baggage. Such people simply create drama and will only waste the time of their lawyer.
Emotional Injuries without Physical Injuries could be Valid
However, this does not mean the emotional injuries of such people are not valid. They may have a valid basis for a case, and the wrongdoing could have caused them the emotional trauma and injuries that they are claiming. The problem comes when the lawyer is trying to figure out exactly what harm the injury caused. The lawyer will have to filter out, what problems the client is suffering at present, compared to the problems he or she had in the past.
If the client has a history of psychiatric problems, the lawyer will have to examine huge amount of records, to figure out what exactly are the current problems, which might have been caused by the injury. If the client had been institutionalized of hospitalized then there is going to be long history that will have to be carefully examined.
Committing Suicide
However, when the person has committed suicide, it would be an exception. For instance, the patient is in a hospital and has suicidal tendencies. The doctors say to the patient that he has been treated and will be sent home. A day or two later, the patient commits suicide.
In this case, the lawyer will have to make an evaluation whether the patient should have been released from the hospital at that time, or whether there were indications of the patient having ongoing psychiatric problems that required further diagnosis, treatment, and further hospitalization. In certain instances, it can be shown that the doctor or hospital had improperly released the patient thereby causing the death by suicide.
Consult another Lawyer
The above instance could be a wonderful case, but when you claim that, you have suffered emotional trauma or psychological problems without any additional physical injuries then your case will most likely be very weak. In such an instance, if you are consulting a lawyer, and the lawyer has decided not to take your case, then he is obliged to mail you a non-engagement letter.
In this letter, the lawyer will mention that even though he has declined to take your case, you should consult another lawyer to get another opinion. This means that even though a lawyer has refused to take your case, it does not necessarily mean that you cannot file the lawsuit.
