Emotional Pain And Suffering Calculator

By Stephen Taylor. Last Updated 26th September 2024. If you’ve suffered psychological injuries from an incident that wasn’t your fault, you may be able to make a personal injury claim to receive compensation. The incident in question can be a range of events, from an accident at work to medical negligence.

A man experiencing emotional pain sat on the floor and leaning against a wall

 If you’ve suffered psychiatric damage from an incident that someone else’s negligence caused, you could use our emotional pain and suffering calculator to see if you can claim. 

Calculate Compensation For Emotional Pain And Suffering Caused By An Accident

Our advisors offer 24/7 free legal advice, so you can call them at a time that works for you. They can answer any questions or queries you may have and confirm if you’ll be able to claim.

You can call them on 0800 408 7826 or visit our contact page. For more information about our personal injury calculator, please read on. 

Jump To A Section

  1. What Damages And Costs Could You Claim For Emotional Pain And Suffering?
  2. Causes Of Emotional Pain And Suffering
  3. Types Of Psychological Injury
  4. Primary Vs Secondary Victims
  5. Claims For Psychological Care And Treatment
  6. How To Use An Emotional Pain And Suffering Calculator
  7. Compensation For Emotional Distress
  8. No Win No Fee Claim Agreements For Emotional Pain And Suffering Claims
  9. Resources And Case Studies

What Damages And Costs Could You Claim For Emotional Pain And Suffering?

There are two potential heads of claim when you make a personal injury claim. First, general damages relate to the physical pain, psychological distress and general decline in your quality of life caused by the injury. For example, you might receive compensation for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic car accident. 

Special damages, meanwhile, relate to the financial losses caused by the injury. Under special damages, you could claim for things like: 

  • Loss of earnings
  • Loss of future earnings
  • Prescriptions and medicine
  • Travel costs to and from medical appointments 

This is one of the ways that an emotional pain and suffering calculator can be helpful. You can input the type of injury you’ve suffered and inform us of any loss of earnings you have incurred, and we can quickly give you an accurate estimate of what you could receive. 

Causes Of Emotional Pain And Suffering

Any traumatic incident can bring with it a serious risk of sustaining some form of mental injury. Examples of events that could cause such trauma include:

  • A road traffic accident
  • Being a victim of a criminal act
  • An accident in a public place
  • Workplace accidents

There are other accident types that could cause someone to be mentally injured or emotionally harmed. If you’re not sure whether your accident entitles you to claim compensation, speak to us today for free legal advice.

Types Of Psychological Injury

Psychological injuries can happen from many events. Due to how people process trauma, the same event could affect two people very differently.

This section will highlight examples of situations you may be able to claim to make you aware of the types of incidents usually involved when making a personal injury claim. 

If you’ve suffered a traumatic event that came about because of the negligence of someone who owed you a duty of care, you could enquire and know within minutes if you’d be able to claim. We offer free legal advice about the process of claiming, and our calculator can accurately assess the value of your claim.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that is created by stressful and traumatic situations. Your brain can struggle to deal with intense and isolating situations, making it difficult to recover from them. 

Usually, the symptoms of PTSD are severe enough to have an effect on your daily life.  Examples of accidents causing emotional distress that could lead you to potentially make a claim includes:

  • A multi-car pile-up caused by a motorist not leaving sufficient stopping distance from your car 
  • An accident in work involving a piece of machinery that malfunctioned because it was not properly maintained. 
  • Medical negligence leading to a traumatic childbirth

Emotional Distress Caused By Abuse 

You may be wondering whether you are able to claim compensation if you have been abused. The answer is that you can; however, these kinds of claims would usually be made through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). 

The CICA is a government agency that is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. They award compensation to those who have suffered criminal injuries through no fault of their own.

You can claim through the CICA for emotional injuries caused by criminal attacks. For instance, if you were the victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse and this caused anxiety, depression or PTSD, you could be compensated for this.

There are a number of differences in the process of claiming compensation through the usual channel and through the CICA. For instance, the general time limit for starting personal injury claims is three years, but in CICA claims, this is just two years.

For more information on the differences between making a normal claim and a CICA claim, speak with our team today. A solicitor from our panel could still represent you if you make a claim through the CICA.

Primary Vs Secondary Victims

When we discuss traumatic incidents, we can refer to primary victims and secondary victims. 

A primary victim is someone directly involved in the incident brought about by someone else’s negligence that resulted in them suffering psychological damage. 

A secondary victim, meanwhile, is someone who has been negatively emotionally affected by the incident that occurred to the primary victim. The criteria for secondary victims who wish to claim compensation has some restrictions: 

  • Firstly, the secondary victim must have a deep, close and serious bond of love and affection for the primary victim. This means that you would need to be either the parent, spouse, partner or child of the primary victim if you’re looking to claim. 
  • As the secondary victim, you must have also witnessed the negligent incident in question. Therefore, hearing about it is not sufficient for you to be able to claim. 
  • Lastly, the primary victim’s original prosecution for third-party negligence must have been successful for you to make a claim. If their claim is successful, you could potentially launch a secondary victim claim, though you would need independent evidence to be assessed. 

Claims For Psychological Care And Treatment

If you have been psychologically injured in an accident caused by negligence, then you could claim back the cost of medical care and treatment.

For example, you could claim for things like:

  • Private therapy sessions to help you cope with the trauma 
  • Nurses who help look after you if, due to the injury, you struggle to take care of yourself.
  • The cost of prescriptions for medication you take to help you cope with your emotional harm.

Your personal injury solicitor will request evidence of the financial losses in question, as they would do with all of the costs you’re trying to claim for. For more information about what care costs could be included in a personal injury claim, speak with our team today.

How To Use An Emotional Pain And Suffering Calculator

One of the reasons you may be looking for an emotional pain and suffering calculator is to understand the amount you could receive if you decide to claim. Our calculator simplifies it for you quickly and easily so that, in the space of just a few minutes, you could have an accurate estimate. 

The amount of compensation you receive from a successful claim depends on the courts. General damages compensation depends on the severity of the injury and how much that injury has negatively impacted your life.

Having studied the payouts for different injuries based on severity and inconvenience caused, the Judicial College has created guideline compensation brackets that give you a better idea of what you could receive. 

Compensation For Emotional Distress

As we have previously stated, following a successful claim your compensation settlement may consist of special and general damages.

When trying to find out how much you may be eligible for in compensation for a psychological injury, our compensation calculator may be able to help. It could give you a clearer understanding of how much you may receive in general damages, though it may not be able to estimate all your special damages.

Alternatively, you could refer to the table that we have created below. We have used the compensation figures listed in the most recent edition of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), published in April 2022. We have used the JCG as it provides compensation brackets for different injuries at various severity levels. It is also used by many legal professionals to help them value numerous claims.

How much compensation you could receive may differ from the amounts stated below. This is because various factors of your claim will affect how much compensation you could be awarded.

InjurySeverity GuidelineDetails
Serious Psychological Injuries And Special DamagesSeriousUp to £250,000+If you're eligible to claim for serious psychological injuries plus relevant special damages, such as loss of earnings, then you may receive a compensation payout that covers all of this.
General Psychiatric Damage Severe£66,920 to £141,240The person will struggle to cope with life, education and work, it will have a very negative impact on their relationships with family and friends and the prognosis will be very poor.
General Psychiatric Damage Moderately severe£23,270 to £66,920The person will still have significant problems but the prognosis will be much more optimistic than in more severe cases.
General Psychiatric Damage Moderate£7,150 to £23,270The prognosis will be good and the person will have made significant improvements.
General Psychiatric Damage Less severe£1,880 to £7,150Awards in this bracket will consider things like how much daily activities and sleep were affected.
Post Traumatic Stress DisorderSevere£73,050 to £122,850The person will be unable to function at the same level they did pre-trauma. All areas of their life will be negatively affected.
Post Traumatic Stress DisorderModerately Severe£28,250 to £73,050A better prognosis with the potential for some recovery with professional help. However they are still likely to suffer for a while.
Post Traumatic Stress DisorderModerate£9,980 to £28,250The person will have largely recovered. Any ongoing effects will not be significantly disabling.
Post Traumatic Stress DisorderLess Severe£4,820 to £9,980Within 2 years the person will have completely recovered with only minor symptoms persisting after this time.

Contact our advisors today to find out whether you are eligible to claim compensation for emotional distress.

No Win No Fee Claim Agreements For Emotional Pain And Suffering Claims

Our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors can support a claim seeking an emotional distress compensation amount under what’s called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Claiming under such an agreement brings several benefits, including the following:

  • Your personal injury solicitor won’t request any payments either upfront or during the claim.
  • You usually also don’t have to pay your solicitor for their work if the claim proves unsuccessful.
  • If your claim is a success, then your solicitor will take a legally capped percentage from the compensation awarded to cover their payment. The legal cap makes sure that you get to keep the majority of your compensation.

For more advice on how much compensation can you get for emotional distress in the UK with a No Win No Fee solicitor, please contact us online or on the phone today. Our advisors can also answer questions you may have about the claiming process or whether you can use an emotional pain and suffering calculator to determine the value of your case. To contact us, you can:

A personal injury solicitor for a psychological injury claim holding a document with one hand and writing notes with the other hand

Resources And Case Studies

For more useful information, please refer to the links below. 

  • The Mind website offers more information about PTSD that you can find here. 
  • The NHS also provides guidance on treatment for PTSD. You can find this on their website. 
  • If you’d like more information about how to protect your children from accidents, go to the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) website. 
  • More information on how to claim for a broken leg can be found in our guide.

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