Archive for the 'Psychological injury' Category

Published in Truckstop News - December 2008.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider “COMPENSATION CLAIMS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL INJURIES”.

Statistics indicate that approximately 25% of those exposed to a traumatic event will develop a psychological illness, for example depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or grief, and which can lead to anxiety and personality changes.  Some people have also been known to become dependent on drugs or alcohol.

The House of Lords has ruled that an employer is responsible for the suicide of an employee after an accident at work, because his depression was caused by the injuries he sustained in the accident.

The House of Lords told the widow of deceased worker, Thomas Corr, that she should receive personal injury compensation from the employer because the suicide was a consequence of an industrial accident.

Mr Corr threw himself from a multi-storey car park in May 2002 after an accident at work in which he was hit on the head by a metal panel, which had left him with severe headaches, unsteadiness and trouble sleeping.

Five Law Lords upheld an earlier Court of Appeal decision that the employer, IBC Vehicles, was liable. The company previously admitted responsibility for the work accident, but denied that its liability covered the depression related suicide.