you’ve ever been through something traumatic and felt like your insides were falling apart even though you looked fine on the outside, then you’re already halfway to understanding what emotional distress means. And in Texas, you can claim compensation for emotional distress caused by an accident. But it’s not easy. Texas law sets a high bar for proving emotional distress in court.
You will need the help of a high-quality personal injury lawyer in Texas to prove emotional losses.
The legal system here demands hard proof, especially because emotional injuries aren’t visible like a broken arm or a stitched-up wound. If you’re in Texas and you’re trying to claim compensation for emotional distress, then you need to understand exactly how this works in your state, and we’re here to break it all down for you in this article.
What Counts as Emotional Distress in a Texas Personal Injury Case?
Emotional distress means your mind and emotions are suffering because of what someone else did to you. In Texas, emotional distress is treated as a non-economic damage; that means it’s not like a medical bill you can slap a dollar sign on.
These damages are more personal and more subjective. They cover things like anxiety, depression, PTSD, flashbacks, and even nightmares that keep you from sleeping. But then, you should know that not every emotional reaction is going to count. If you’re just sad or shaken up for a few days, that’s not enough.
To even start a claim for emotional distress in Texas, the distress has to be severe. We’re talking about mental suffering that goes beyond what a regular person would go through in the same situation. It has to mess with your life in a serious way.
Maybe you can’t work anymore because you can’t concentrate, or maybe you stopped driving completely because of the fear that won’t leave your chest after a crash. Those are the kind of things the law takes into account.
Two Ways Emotional Distress Happens: Intentional and Negligent
Texas law looks at emotional distress in two major categories:
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
This is when someone deliberately tries to mess with your head through extreme and outrageous behavior. Like someone threatening you, stalking you, or doing something cruel on purpose just to watch you suffer.
You have to prove that the person acted intentionally or recklessly, that what they did was truly shocking, and that you suffered serious emotional consequences from it.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)
This occurs when someone didn’t mean to hurt you, but they were careless and ended up causing you emotional harm anyway.
For this, you have to prove that they owed you a duty of care, they failed in that duty, and their failure caused you emotional suffering that was serious and foreseeable. Like witnessing a car crash that hurt someone you love, or being emotionally wrecked after a medical mistake.
How Do You Actually Prove Emotional Distress in Texas?
Here are some of the means you can use to prove to a court exactly how you feel:
- Medical records: If you’ve been to therapy or gotten treatment for your mental health, those records are key.
- Expert opinions: A mental health professional can testify about your condition. Their job is to explain how your emotional distress connects directly to what happened.
- Witness accounts: Friends, family, even coworkers who’ve seen how you’ve changed can talk about it. They might explain how you’re not yourself anymore, maybe you’ve withdrawn, maybe you cry easily, maybe you panic over small things.
- Employment records: If your performance at work has dropped or you’ve missed days due to your mental state, that helps show how serious your distress is.
Conclusion
Texas is a state that believes in tough proof and clear cause. So if you’re trying to prove emotional distress in a personal injury claim, especially here in Texas, you better be ready to lay everything bare.
You should also consider talking to a personal injury attorney who understands the way Texas handles these cases.
