People who suffer personal injuries not only get broken bones, bruises, sprains and strains, they also suffer emotional distress. The emotional distress can come from the injury itself, but it also comes from the changed circumstances the person faces as a result of the personal injuries.
Depression can set in due to the fact the injured person is not as active. Emotional distress can also come as a result of the changes in social life the injured person experiences. Activities such as skiing or golfing or simply walking, if curtailed, can have a dramatic effect on a person’s psyche, well-being and happiness.
How does one get compensation for the depression and emotional distress caused by a personal injury? Insurance companies do not want to pay for anything they cannot see on an x-ray or in a physical test. When an injured person claims emotional distress as a result of an accident, the insurance companies want to delve into the injured person’s past to see if they have previous depression, unhappiness, or personal problems. The defense will look for past “bad times” suffered by the plaintiff in the hopes of finding bad behavior, drug or alcohol abuse, or situations the plaintiff may not be that proud to have been involved, like a bad marriage.
This technique is called “demonizing” the plaintiff. The defense attorneys want to make the plaintiff look bad so that the jury or other fact finder will not like the plaintiff and will not award as much money for the injured person’s emotional damages. The merits of the case are not important; the defense wants to put the past bad conduct of the plaintiff on trial.
Attorneys who represent injured people must be careful not to open the doors to the defense to demonize the plaintiff. The better approach is to sue for loss of enjoyment of life. Activities and social life that the claimant is missing out on thus become the topic, not the past deeds or misdeeds of the plaintiff. Plaintiffs must claim nothing more than “garden variety” emotional distress. The courts will protect the plaintiff’s right of privacy if only “garden variety” emotional distress is claimed. If anything more is claimed, the defense attorneys will pull all those nasty, vulgar bad things out to demonize the plaintiff, even though they have nothing to do with the present claim.
