Understanding Emotional Distress in Workplace Injury Claims

When someone gets injured in a workplace accident, they may sustain several different types of losses. Some of the direct economic losses include medical expenses, time missed from work (because of the injury), and rehabilitation/retraining costs. Among the noneconomic and intangible losses include pain-and-suffering and emotional distress.

If you or a loved one suffered a workplace injury in Alabama, Burge & Burge is here to help. Work injury claims can be complicated, and there are multiple potential legal options that injured workers may be able to pursue in order to obtain compensation. For example, it may be possible to file a personal injury lawsuit in addition to a workers’ compensation claim in some circumstances.

In a situation like this, it is best to work with attorneys who have in-depth experience with these types of cases and the proven ability to recover full and fair compensation for their clients. For a free consultation and case assessment with a member of our legal team, call our office today at 205-251-9000 or send us an online message.

Emotional Distress and Workplace Injuries

Emotional distress is one of the most overlooked types of losses that individuals suffer during a workplace injury. This is different from the physical pain and suffering that an injury victim goes through – it is the psychological harm that the injury causes.

Emotional distress encompasses a number of different types of psychological pain, including:

• Mental Anguish
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Grief
• Embarrassment
• Humiliation
• Shame
• Fright
• Despair

In a personal injury lawsuit, a plaintiff can seek damages for emotional distress based on negligent infliction or intentional infliction. Negligent infliction is emotional distress caused by the negligent conduct of another person or party. For example, if a worker suffers a crush injury because of a defective piece of equipment, then the basis for the claim would be the negligence of the designer, manufacturer, or distributor of the faulty product.

Intentional infliction of emotional distress happens when a defendant intentionally causes emotional harm to the plaintiff. For example, a subcontractor on a construction site recklessly wields his tools around and injures a construction worker. Then he insults that worker and claims the injury was his fault for being in the way. Intentional infliction claims are not nearly as common as those based on negligent infliction, but they do happen sometimes.

Pursuing Emotional Distress and Other Noneconomic Losses in Workplace Injury Claims

It is important to point out that recovering damages for emotional distress and other intangible losses can be difficult in a workplace injury case, and it is not always possible. In Alabama, most employers are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This means that when an employee suffers a work-related injury or illness, they are able to recover workers’ comp benefits without having to prove that an employer or co-worker was negligent.

The trade-off for receiving no-fault workers’ comp coverage is that Alabama employees are generally not allowed to sue their employers for the injury. This means that the injured employee can only collect the benefits that are available through workers’ compensation, which include reasonable and necessary medical expenses, a percentage of lost earnings, and coverage for permanent disabilities.

Unfortunately, workers’ comp does not provide reimbursement for the intangible losses that an injured employee sustains, such as pain and suffering and emotional distress. So, if the only parties involved in a workplace injury are the employer, injured employee, and/or coworkers, then there is no way to recover compensation for emotional distress.

If there is any good news in all of this, it is that there are a large number of workplace accidents in which there are multiple contributing factors that could make an outside party liable. Earlier, we cited examples in which injury could because by defective equipment/machinery or the negligence/recklessness of a third-party subcontractor. There are a number of other instances in which this might be the case, and an extensive investigation is necessary to determine the potential causes for the injury and who may be responsible.

Injured in a Workplace Accident in Alabama? Contact Burge & Burge for Legal Help

If you or someone close to you got hurt in a workplace accident, you need strong legal counsel by your side advocating forcefully for your legal rights and interests. If the injury occurred in Alabama, call Burge & Burge today at 205-251-9000 or message us online to set up your free, no obligation consultation.