How To Make A Claim For Severe PTSD

This guide will discuss the process of making a personal injury compensation claim for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is an anxiety disorder that can be caused by events that have been very stressful, frightening, or distressing. Throughout our guide, we explore when you could be eligible to claim for severe PTSD and how much compensation could be awarded if your case succeeds.

We will identify the third parties with a duty of care to keep you safe in public places, at work or on the road. Furthermore, we will give details on when a breach of their duty could result in a psychological injury like PTSD and the impact it could have.

Lastly, as well as covering evidence that can help your case, we will explain the benefits of working with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.

Our advisors are on hand to answer your questions and help you discover if you have valid grounds to make a serious injury claim. To get this free advice, you can:

a picture of a judge's hammer and some money on a table

What Could Your Serious Injury Claim For Severe PTSD Be Worth?

Select A Section

  1. What Could Your Serious Injury Claim For Severe PTSD Be Worth?
  2. Criteria To Claim For Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  3. How Long Do You Have To Claim For Severe PTSD?
  4. What Evidence Could Help You To Make A Successful Claim?
  5. Get Help From No Win No Fee Solicitors

What Could Your Serious Injury Claim For Severe PTSD Be Worth?

It could be possible to claim for severe PTSD alone, or alongside another traumatic injury, such as amputation and paralysis. 

A settlement after a successful personal injury claim could feature up to two heads of claim. Special damages compensate for monetary losses brought about by your injuries. You can present evidence such as payslips or bank statements to prove the financial impact of, among other things:

  • A loss of earnings if you are unable to work due to your condition.
  • Travel, such as bus journeys to and from medical appointments.
  • Treatment costs.
  • Prescription charges.

You can claim special damages if general damages are awarded. General damages account for the pain and suffering you experience because of your injuries, both physical and psychological.

Legal professionals, such as solicitors, can assign a value to your injuries with help from any medical evidence provided in support of your claim, and a document containing guideline figures called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG).

We have used the JCG to put together this table of compensation brackets for psychological and physical injuries. Please note, however, that this table is only a guide.

Compensation Table

INJURYCOMPENSATIONNOTES
Serious Multiple InjuriesUp to £1,000,000+Psychological injuries alone or with physical injuries and financial losses.
Brain And Head - Very Severe£282,010 to £403,990The requirement for full-time care.
Arm Amputation£240,790 to £300,000Loss of both arms.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Severe£59,860 to £100,670The affected person is permanently impacted and cannot work or function at a pre-trauma level.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Moderately Severe£23,150 to £59,860A significant disability for the foreseeable future but a better prognosis due to some recovery with a professional's help.
Loss Of EarningsUp to £100,000 and aboveCompensation could be awarded to cover lost earnings due to time taken off work, be it permanent or temporary, because of the injury.

To discuss your potential compensation payout for severe PTSD, please contact an advisor on the number above. They can offer a free, personalised estimate of your claim.

Criteria To Claim For Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In order to begin a personal injury claim for severe PTSD, you must ensure that you have valid grounds to start proceedings. You will have to show that:

  • A third party owed you a duty of care;
  • They breached their duty, causing an accident;
  • You suffered physical and/or mental harm as a result.

These criteria make up the foundation of negligence in personal injury claims.

Below, you can learn about the third parties in different spaces and the legislation or rules that establish their duty towards others.

Serious Public Accident Claim Criteria 

Those in charge of public spaces are known as occupiers; they must uphold the duty of care set out for them by the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. This duty entails taking steps to keep visitors reasonably safe while on the premises. A breached duty could lead to a traumatic accident. For example:

  • A visitor to a restaurant falls down a poorly lit and broken staircase, sustaining a serious back injury. They suffer partial paralysis, and severe PTSD as a result of their physical injury.

Criteria To Claim For A Serious Work Accident

Employers are required to take all reasonable and practicable steps to keep employees safe from harm, according to Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. By failing to take action to protect employees, employers could find that their breach of duty causes an accident with subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder affecting an employee. For example:

  • An employer fails to carry out regular maintenance on machinery resulting in electrical faults being missed. The machinery short-circuits and an employee, though physically unharmed themselves, witnesses their workmate receive a fatal electric shock. They claim for severe PTSD and seek special damages for a loss of earnings as they cannot return to work because of mental trauma from seeing the fatal accident involving electrocution.

Criteria To Claim For A Serious Road Accident

A road traffic accident could occur if those using the road do not take care to protect themselves and others from harm. In order to meet their duty of care to navigate roads safely, road users must follow the rules set out in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code. A failure to do so could result in an accident, such as:

  • A car is hit on the passenger side by a lorry attempting to undercut them on the motorway. As well as sustaining a brain injury, the driver witnesses their passenger sustaining a traumatic amputation injury. They receive a PTSD diagnosis as a result.

To discuss your specific case and find out whether you’re eligible to make a claim for severe PTSD, call our team on the number above.

How Long Do You Have To Claim For Severe PTSD?

The Limitation Act 1980 sets a general three-year time limit for personal injury claims. This means that in most cases, you must start your claim within three years of the accident.

However, some cases may call for an exception. For example, someone with reduced mental capacity to claim has their time limit paused indefinitely. During this pause, a trusted litigation friend could be appointed by the court to claim on their behalf. If this does not happen and the person recovers, they would have three years from their recovery date to start their claim.

Similarly, an under-18 could be given the support of a litigation friend during their pause period, which runs up to their 18th birthday. Should that time come without a claim having been made, the affected person would have until their 21st birthday to start a claim.

If you are unsure how long you have to seek compensation for severe PTSD, please get in touch with our advisors.

What Evidence Could Help You To Make A Successful Claim?

A claim for PTSD will require relevant evidence to prove a third party’s breach of duty led to an accident in which you sustained harm. As such, you may benefit from collecting:

  • An official record, like a workplace accident book entry.
  • Witness contact information.
  • Medical evidence, such as a psychiatrist’s report.
  • A diary detailing your treatment and symptoms.
  • Photographs of the accident scene.
  • Footage of the incident, caught on a dashcam or CCTV.

Our serious injury solicitors can make the claims process easier for you by helping in collecting evidence for your case. Please chat with our advisors if you would like to know more about this service and how to gather proof.

Get Help From No Win No Fee Solicitors

On showing you have a valid serious injury claim, our panel of solicitors could lend their support to your case and keep you updated throughout the process. You could access a solicitor’s services under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), a form of No Win No Fee contract.

A CFA could benefit you as you do not pay for your solicitor’s services:

  • Upfront;
  • During the claim; or
  • Should the case lose.

Your solicitor would take a success fee if the case succeeds. The percentage they take as the success fee comes from your compensation. However, it is capped by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013. Our panel of solicitors will be fully transparent and discuss the percentage that is collected before the claim begins.

Contacting Us

Our advisors can consult with you for free about a potential claim for severe PTSD after an accident. After determining your claim is valid, they could put you in contact with one of the solicitors on our panel. For more information, you can:

Read More About Claiming For A Serious Injury

Here are some further guides we have produced:

You may find these resources helpful:

Thank you for reading our guide on making a claim for severe PTSD. Please get in touch if there is anything else we can help you with.

Written by EM

Edited by MMI