Can You Sue for Emotional Trauma After a Motorcycle Accident?

Posted on February 10, 2025 in Motorcycle Accident

Motorcycle accidents are physically and emotionally devastating. Not only are you dealing with the physical injuries resulting from the accident, but you may also struggle with the emotional trauma that follows. The emotional impact of a motorcycle accident is significant and long-lasting, affecting your mental health, relationships, and overall quality of life. You may never be the same again after the motorcycle accident in several respects.

Emotional distress can be a lingering effect of the accident. The moments before and after the motorcycle accident are difficult to remove from your memory. Even when you can recover physically from your injuries, the mental effects continue to affect your life. Emotional distress can harm your ability to work and keep you from living an everyday life.

If you have suffered an injury in a motorcycle accident, you are already dealing with enough stress without having to worry about pursuing compensation. You should immediately contact a motorcycle accident attorney to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your case. When you get legal help, you can strengthen your position against the insurance company that represents the other driver.

Insurance companies may not pay you much respect when dealing with you on your own. However, they will regard you differently when they see that you have a tough motorcycle accident attorney with a track record of getting results representing you. The fact that you do not have to pay a motorcycle accident attorney anything from your own pocket should give you more peace of mind. Legal representation protects your financial interests and gives you a greater chance of a favorable outcome.

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How Emotional Distress Can Affect You After a Motorcycle Accident

Emotional distress can manifest itself in several ways after a motorcycle accident. You may experience flashbacks to the accident or its immediate aftermath. A motorcycle crash can cause a tremendous amount of trauma to someone who has gone through the experience. You may deal with anxiety and depression as a result of your ordeal that can impact your daily life.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the most common form of emotional trauma after a motorcycle accident. Examples of PTSD include:

• Heightened anxiety in general
• Changes to your mood
• Intrusive thoughts
• Nightmares
• Difficulties in personal relationships
• Physical symptoms, such as headaches and muscle pain
• Anger management issues
• Fear of riding a motorcycle again or even in any motor vehicle

Before you can even sue for emotional distress, you must prove that someone else was at fault for your motorcycle accident injuries. The prerequisite in your case is that you can demonstrate that the driver (or another responsible party) was to blame for what happened to you. To prove legal liability for the accident, you need evidence that shows what the driver did and prepare to argue why it was unreasonable under the circumstances.

Your Damages in a Motorcycle Accident Case

There are two categories of damages in a motorcycle accident case:

• Economic damages cover your actual financial losses, including money that you had to spend from your own pocket and earnings that you could not earn because of your injuries.
• Non-economic damages compensate you for the actual effects that your physical injuries and the accident had on your life.

Emotional distress is part of your non-economic damages. In some cases, it falls under pain and suffering damages. Other times, your motorcycle accident settlement will specifically compensate you for emotional distress. Either way, the party who was responsible for your motorcycle accident injuries has a legal obligation to restore you to the emotional position that you were in before the accident. They will do this by paying you money for all of the types of injuries that they have caused you.

Emotional Distress Is a Subjective Claim By Nature

Filing a claim for emotional distress is a challenging process because it is inherently subjective by nature. You are the one who has experienced the trauma and is living with the effects of it. Thus, everything depends on your circumstances and what you have endured. The only person who is going through the emotional distress is you, and the insurance company does not ordinarily have a direct window into your daily life and experiences.

Insurance companies are known for vigorously contesting your damages and trying to minimize the extent of the harm that you claim. They may deny that you are dealing with emotional distress entirely, or they may say that the problem is not as bad as you are reporting. Eventually, your emotional distress claim may come down to your word against the insurance company.

You Need to Seek Mental Health Treatment to Document Your Condition

Therefore, you must take steps to document what you are going through as you are experiencing it. If you present a claim for emotional distress without any contemporaneous documentation, you are inviting the insurance companies to challenge your damages. It is best not to assume that your mental state reports are enough to persuade them.

Treatment records can strengthen an emotional distress claim. You should seek help from a mental health professional as soon as possible after your accident. Even if you are dealing with physical injuries, you should still take the time to address your mental health. First, you must get treatment so you can recover from the emotional distress to the fullest extent possible. It is grueling to live with the effects of the accident itself, and you can and should do anything in your power to help yourself. You may improve over time when you commit to getting help and sticking with it.

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Getting Mental Health Care Can Strengthen Your Legal Case

Seeing a mental health professional is also a must for your legal case. A standard in any personal injury case states that you must do everything possible to mitigate your damages. In the emotional distress context, you must seek treatment to try to get better. Suppose the insurance company sees that you are claiming emotional distress damages without any record that you have seen a mental health professional. In that case, it will claim that you have not done anything to get better.

If the insurance company offers you anything in emotional distress compensation, it is likely for less than you may get after making an effort to recover. When you do seek help, you must follow up with your treatment, making and attending all necessary appointments. If a medical professional has prescribed you medications, take all your prescriptions and get timely refills.

Further, a mental health professional can also help by documenting your condition and treatment. Specifically, they will make notes of your treatment, relating their observations and what you have told them. They will give their professional opinion of your condition and write it on paper.

You will face less of a challenge from the insurance company when it sees treatment notes from a licensed mental health professional. Further, your treatment professional can testify about your condition at a deposition or trial to describe their observations. Even though emotional distress is subjective, the more documentation you have, the more persuasive your claim is to the insurance company or jury.

Regardless, you are never under any obligation to accept the insurance company’s viewpoint or even the amount of money it offers you for emotional distress. How much you qualify for in a settlement is a matter that is up for negotiation between you and the insurance company.

How a Motorcycle Accident Attorney Helps Your Emotional Distress Claim

One of the first challenges is knowing how much your emotional distress claim is worth, and it is a complex process to translate what you are feeling and experiencing into a dollar amount. In a motorcycle accident case, everything gets reduced to numbers because that is the only way that you will receive compensation for your injuries. Your motorcycle accident attorney will work with experts, relying on your diagnosis, to determine a value for your case.

Then, you must arrive at an actual number you will receive in damages as part of your settlement agreement. If you have a fundamental difference of opinion with the insurance company, your motorcycle accident lawyer will continue negotiating for you to receive more money. The insurance company may raise its offer if your motorcycle accident attorney continues to put pressure on it. Insurance companies fear litigation, and they push things right up to the point of a lawsuit or jury trial before finally raising their offer to a reasonable level.

Of course, if all else fails and you cannot reach a settlement agreement, your motorcycle accident attorney will try your case in front of a jury. With that in mind, you should always select a motorcycle accident lawyer with courtroom experience. Insurance companies know lawyers by their reputation, and being up against a tough attorney may make them think twice about pushing your case too far.

By thoroughly investigating the accident, gathering evidence, and interviewing witnesses, your attorney can construct a compelling argument to present in court. With their experience in handling motorcycle accident cases, they understand what it takes to communicate your story and advocate for your best interests.

It Does Not Cost You Anything Upfront to Hire a Motorcycle Accident Attorney

The first step to hiring a motorcycle accident attorney is to schedule a free initial consultation. Of course, speaking to a motorcycle accident lawyer to learn more about your case does not cost you anything. The good news is that even after you hire an attorney, you will not have to pay them anything out of pocket. Motorcycle accident attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you only pay if they win your case.

The contingency fee structure allows accident victims to seek justice without worrying about upfront legal expenses. Instead, your attorney will take a percentage of your settlement or court award as their fee. This arrangement helps level the playing field, ensuring that anyone can access quality legal representation, regardless of their financial situation. Also, because your attorney’s payment depends on the successful outcome of your case, they will do everything possible to get you the compensation you deserve.

Hire a Motorcycle Accident Attorney

Hiring a motorcycle accident attorney allows you to gain an experienced ally who understands personal injury law. They have the knowledge and resources to handle the legal system on your behalf, allowing you to focus on your recovery.

Whether negotiating with insurance companies or presenting a compelling case in court, your attorney will work tirelessly to protect your rights and ensure you receive the compensation you deserve. Contact a personal injury attorney who can provide the guidance and representation you need during this challenging time.

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