PTSD Awareness Month runs through June. It lines up with the season when most of the year's car accident cases get filed. The intersection between the two is real. People who survive a high-speed collision often carry the psychological signature of the impact for months. Sometimes years. Long after the orthopedic injuries have stabilized.
The trauma can arrive late. A driver who walked away from the wreck on the 405 with a cracked rib and a wrist sprain. Six months later, that same driver finds they cannot merge onto a freeway. A passenger who escaped a rollover with a concussion cannot sit in the front seat of any car after dark. A mother who watched her son get hit in the crosswalk in front of a school flinches every time a vehicle approaches the same intersection.
What follows covers the way California treats post-accident trauma in a personal injury case. It covers what counts as a compensable injury when the harm is psychological. It covers how a treating physician's record builds the foundation for the claim. And it covers the personal injury process. From the moment the trauma starts to the moment a jury hears the case.
If you've experienced an injury due to someone else's negligence, contact Bloom Injury Law today for a free consultation. Call (310) 525-5985 or contact us online.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition is the framework California treating physicians use to evaluate post-traumatic stress disorder. So do retained witnesses. A motor vehicle collision is one of the listed Criterion A events. The diagnosis is built on four categories of symptoms. Intrusion symptoms. Avoidance. Negative alterations in cognition and mood. Alterations in arousal and reactivity. The symptoms persist for more than one month. They cause significant impairment.
In a personal injury case, the diagnosis is not one our attorneys offer. It is a clinical record built by a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, or a licensed clinical social worker over multiple sessions. The carrier's defense medical examination is going to challenge it. The treating clinician's record is what holds up at deposition and at trial.
Yes. Past and future pain and suffering is a category of damages a California jury can consider. So is loss of enjoyment of life. The law treats psychological injury as compensable on the same footing as physical injury. The medical record has to support the diagnosis.
The categories that fall under the emotional component of a personal injury case are several. The past and future cost of the mental health treatment itself. That covers the therapy sessions, the medication, and the inpatient program where one is needed. Past and future lost earnings and earning capacity where the trauma affects work. Past and future pain and suffering covering the experience of the symptoms. Loss of enjoyment of life covering the things the injured person can no longer do.
The case has to be built. A jury cannot be asked to award damages for PTSD without a clinical record. The case needs a documented treatment course. It needs a treating provider who will appear at deposition and at trial. Without that, the case rests on argument alone. That is not the case our attorneys present.
The case runs on the medical record. A diagnosis from a treating clinician. A treatment course of at least several months. A documented response to evidence-based therapy. That includes Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and EMDR. And a clear connection between the date of the collision and the onset of symptoms.
The corroboration runs through people. A spouse who can describe the change in sleep patterns. A coworker who can describe the change in driving behavior. A friend who used to go on weekend road trips with the injured person and no longer does. The depositions of these witnesses are often the most powerful pieces of evidence in the emotional-distress portion of the case.
The records of avoidance behaviors are the third layer. The Uber receipts that replace the driving the injured person used to do. The cancellation of a fitness class held at a gym near the collision site. The home delivery orders that replace the trips to the grocery store. The behavioral changes that an internist or a family physician documented in the months after the crash.
The defense medical examination on a PTSD case is performed by a defense-retained psychiatrist or psychologist. The exam is structured. It looks for inconsistencies between the patient's self-report and the medical record. It attributes symptoms to pre-collision events. It searches for malingering. It challenges the diagnostic criteria.
Our attorneys prepare the client for the defense medical examination. We use the same approach our trial team uses to prepare a witness for a deposition. The questions to expect. The records the defense-retained physician has already reviewed. The body of the diagnosis the defense-retained physician is going to put pressure on. The way to answer.
A defense medical examination does not decide the case. It is one piece of evidence the jury hears. The jury weighs it against the treating clinician's record. Against the family witnesses. Against the documented treatment course. And against the conduct of the defense-retained physician at deposition.
The categories are several. Past and future mental health treatment costs. Past and future lost earnings and earning capacity where the trauma keeps the injured person out of a job. Or where it shifts them into a lower-paying role. Past and future pain and suffering covering the experience of the symptoms. Loss of enjoyment of life covering the activities and relationships affected.
In a wrongful death case, the surviving family may carry post-traumatic stress. That includes the surviving spouse, the surviving children, and the surviving parents. The trauma comes from the experience of witnessing the collision. It can also come from the experience of learning about it within minutes. California's bystander recovery rule permits a limited category of negligent infliction of emotional distress recovery. The close relationship and the contemporaneous observance have to be present.
The personal injury case runs on its own track. The mental health treatment runs on another track. The two have to line up for the claim to be presented to the jury at its strongest.
The first six months after the collision are the foundation. A diagnosis from a treating clinician. A consistent course of therapy at a reasonable frequency. Medication management if the prescribing clinician indicates one is appropriate. A documented pattern of attendance and engagement with treatment.
The next twelve months are where the case takes shape. The complaint and summons is filed in the California Superior Court. The answer follows. Written discovery is served. The depositions of the parties and of the treating clinician get scheduled. The defense medical examination is set up and defended.
The final stretch is the mandatory settlement conference, the mediation, the trial setting conference, jury selection, and the trial. The treating clinician's records, the family witnesses, and the documented behavioral changes carry the case to the jury.
In most situations the case is built on a physical injury that gives rise to the emotional distress. The PTSD is treated as part of the past and future pain and suffering. There is a narrow path for a stand-alone emotional distress claim. The defendant has to have created an imminent risk of physical harm. The facts have to be specific.
No. California applies the eggshell plaintiff rule. A person can recover for the aggravation of a pre-existing condition by the conduct of a defendant. The defense will argue the symptoms are continuations of the pre-existing condition. The treating clinician's record on the change from baseline is what carries the argument.
The general statute of limitations for personal injury claims in California runs two years from the date of the incident. The clock does not extend because the trauma is psychological. A delayed onset of symptoms is documented in the medical record and presented to the jury.
The delayed-onset case is common on PTSD claims after a serious collision. The medical record documents the timeline. The treating clinician's note that the patient first reported intrusion symptoms three months post-collision becomes the anchor for the claim.
In our car accident lawyers' experience, the carrier's posture improves substantially once the case is in suit. That improvement deepens once the treating clinician has been deposed. It deepens further once the defense medical examination has been completed. The carrier writes a different number after the case is trial-ready than they write while the file is still in pre-suit.
Yes, where the diagnostic criteria are met. The treating clinician's record has to support the diagnosis. Pediatric PTSD presents differently from adult PTSD. The treatment is delivered by a child and adolescent psychiatrist or psychologist trained in pediatric trauma. The records are read by the jury through that lens.
A serious collision does not end at the emergency room. The case the carrier writes a number on is the case Bloom Injury Law has built. We build the case to include every category of injury the law allows a jury to consider. Call our office before the carrier closes the file with the orthopedic damages alone.
If you've experienced an injury due to someone else's negligence, contact Bloom Injury Law today for a free consultation. Call (310) 525-5985 or contact us online.
