By Danielle Graves. Last Updated 10th February 2023. In this online guide, we are going to look at how to use a mental health compensation calculator. Additionally, we will cover some of the reasons why you might want to make a claim for harm caused to your mental health.
You may assume that if you have been injured in an accident, for example, a car accident or accident at work, you can only claim for the physical injuries that the incident has caused you. However, this is not the case.
Psychological injury claims guide
You can claim compensation for the mental injuries that your accident has caused you. Mental injuries can be debilitating and might stop you from being able to live your life as you did before.
We can’t hope to cover every possible combination of circumstances that could lead to a claim in this guide. However, we can still answer any more questions that you may have after reading this guide. You can call 0161 696 9685 and speak to one of our claims experts, or get in touch with us online. They can help you further.
Jump To A Section:
- A Guide To Using A Mental Health Compensation Calculator
- What Are Psychological Injuries?
- Compensation For Psychological Injury – Conditions You Could Claim For
- Mental Health Medical Negligence
- Psychological Injury Compensation Calculator
- What Else Can A Mental Health Compensation Payout Include?
- What Steps Do I Need To Take?
- Psychological Damage – Claim With A No Win No Fee Lawyer
- Contact Our Team For Help Using Our Mental Health Compensation Calculator
- Useful Mental Health Resources
- Frequently Asked Questions On Mental Health Compensation Payouts
A Guide To Using A Mental Health Compensation Calculator
This guide is going to talk about how a mental health compensation calculator could help to value your personal injury claim. We start the guide off with an overview of what psychological injuries are.
The next part of this guide looks at different types of psychological injuries and illnesses. This includes conditions caused by head injuries and brain injury. We’ll also look at how clinical negligence could cause mental harm.
Next, we will look at the types of evidence you might be able to submit to support a mental health claim. You will also find some advice on how to work out whether your claim is valid or not. We have added an example table showing compensation ranges, as well as an explanation of the damages you may wish to seek.
This guide will also explain how a No Win No Fee agreement could help you fund legal representation for your claim. We end this guide with our contact information, some useful links, some statistics on mental health, and a short FAQ section.
Is There A Claims Deadline?
The general time limit to make a personal injury claim in the UK is three years. However, there are external factors that might cause this time limit to differ. For example, if the claimant doesn’t have the mental capacity to claim or if the claimant is a child, they cannot represent themselves. This could affect the time limit that applies.
If you would like to check to find out which deadline will apply based on your own circumstances, call our team. Explain your circumstances to one of our advisors, and they can tell you whether your claim is valid and, if so, which claims time limit will apply.
What Are Psychological Injuries?
A psychological injury or psychiatric injury is an injury that, first and foremost, affects your mental well-being. A psychological injury can come about as a direct result of a physical injury (for example, a head injury that results in brain damage).
It could also come about as a result of a physical injury that did not cause the psychological injury directly, but that has caused it indirectly. This could be because of shock or trauma.
For example, you may have been involved in an accident where a piece of machinery malfunctioned and caused a crush injury to your leg. The trauma of the incident could cause you to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In order to claim compensation for your injuries, the accident that caused them must have been caused by the negligence of a third party. In addition to this, the third party must have owed you a duty of care.
For more information on whether you’re eligible to claim, speak to an advisor today. While you have the option of using a mental health compensation calculator, our team of advisors could value your claim based on the individual circumstances of your claim.
Compensation For Psychological Injury – Conditions You Could Claim For
There are several mental health conditions and illnesses that can be classified and diagnosed as psychological injuries. A few listed by the NHS include:
- Clinical depression
- Panic disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Psychotic depression
- Social anxiety
As said, you could use a mental health compensation calculator to receive an estimate for compensation in a psychological injury claim. However, any estimate you receive may not include a figure for special damages.
If you would like to learn more about how to use a psychological injury compensation calculator or to hear about stress or PTSD compensation examples, then please reach out to one of our advisers.
PTSD Claim UK – How To Prove A Claim For Psychological Damage
In order to claim for psychological damage, you need to be able to provide evidence. You will need to prove that you suffered a psychological injury due to a breach of duty of care. There are a few different ways you can support your claim.
For example, you could present:
- A psychological evaluation
- Medical records
- Prescription slips
- CCTV footage – For instance, if you have suffered PTSD due to an accident, see if the accident itself was captured
Get in touch today to find out more about gathering evidence for a psychological injury claim.
Mental Health And Medical Negligence
A mental or psychological injury could also occur as a result of medical negligence. Every medical professional has a duty of care to provide you with a minimum standard of care. If there is a breach of this duty of care, it could result in mental harm.
This could happen when you’re seeking medical attention for a physical injury. For example, you might not be given enough anaesthetic during the surgery, meaning that you regained consciousness partway through. This could be traumatic and might lead to you experiencing PTSD.
Alternatively, you could also seek medical attention for your mental health and clinical negligence makes it worse. For instance, you might seek medical attention for your anxiety but be given the wrong medication, which makes the condition worse.
Some examples of how medical negligence could cause a psychological injury, or make an existing condition worse, are given below:
- You’re prescribed the wrong medication for your depression by your doctor. This means that your condition is not treated and gets worse.
- You have a difficult and traumatic childbirth experience because the attending staff were negligent. As a result, you experience PTSD.
Click Here To Learn More About Medical Negligence
Psychological Injury Compensation Calculator
In this section, we explain how your compensation may be calculated in a successful claim. Factors that could influence a payout include the type of psychological injuries you’ve sustained and their severity.
The table below shows injuries and related figures taken from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Legal professionals use these guidelines to help value general damages. The amounts are taken from the 2022 edition of the JCG, which is the latest publication.
| Type of Injury | Severity of Injury | Compensation | Additional Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychological damage | Severe | £54,830 to £115,730 | This bracket would include marked problems with respect of a range of factors including life and education. |
| Psychological damage | Moderate to severe | £19,070 to £54,830 | While there will be significant problems relating to various factors, there will be a better prognosis than in cases above. |
| Psychological damage | Moderate | £5,860 to £19,070 | In this bracket, marked improvement will have been made and there will be a good prognosis. |
| Psychological damage | Less severe | £1,540 to £5,860 | The amount of compensation within this bracket will depend on things like how badly the injured person had their sleep affected. |
| PTSD | Severe | £59,860 to £100,670 | No function at the pre trauma level. |
| PTSD | Moderately Severe | £23,150 to £59,860 | A better prognosis following professional help. |
| PTSD | Moderate | £8,180 to £23,150 | Cases of large recovery with no majorly disabling effects remaining. |
| PTSD | Less Severe | £3,950 to £8,180 | A full recovery within one to two years. |
As noted, these figures relate to general damages, one of the two possible heads of a claim. General damages compensate you for the suffering caused by your injuries. Special damages, the other potential head of claim, address any possible financial impact caused by the accident and your injury. This could potentially cover lost income, transport costs and counselling or treatment charges.
You may consider using an online mental health compensation calculator to value your psychological injury claim. However, a psychological injury compensation calculator may not be able to take into account every factor of your case, such as financial loss. For an accurate evaluation, contact our advisors today.
How Could A Mental Health Compensation Calculator Help Me?
If you are suffering from stress, anxiety, or other mental health injuries as a result of third-party negligence, you may be interested in making a claim. In this case, a mental health compensation calculator could be of use to you.
Using a mental health compensation calculator can help give you a broad idea of what you could receive in general damages should you make a successful claim for anxiety, stress, or PTSD.
However, there are some things a mental health compensation calculator cannot take into account. For example, a compensation calculator may not account for the special damages head of your claim.
To learn more about what you could claim for and how a mental health compensation calculator could help you, contact our team of advisors today.
What Else Can A Mental Health Compensation Payout Include?
Psychiatric injury compensation amounts may be divided into two heads of claim. In this section, we’ll focus on what else you may be compensated for other than general damages.
Special damages may be included in a mental health compensation payout if you have suffered any financial harm or loss due to your injuries. This also includes future monetary losses.
We’ve featured some examples of special damages below:
- Loss of earnings
- Care expenses
- Travel costs
- Medical expenses
A mental health compensation calculator may not be able to take your special damages into account when valuing your claim. To find out what psychiatric injury compensation amounts you could be owed, call our advisors at a time that best suits you.
What Steps Do I Need To Take?
You don’t necessarily need to use a mental health compensation calculator as part of the claims process. A solicitor would be able to value your claim for you as one of the steps of starting a claim.
We have listed some other steps below that could strengthen your claim or increase your chances of success:
- Seek medical attention. This will ensure that you get any treatment, like medication or therapy, that you need. It’ll also mean that there’s a record of your injuries that can be referred back to.
- Gather any applicable evidence that might be needed to support your claim.
- Seek legal advice. While not a requirement, having a solicitor work on your claim could help you get more money than you would otherwise. They could also make the claims process run more smoothly.
If you’d like free legal advice about the process of claiming, speak with us today. You could be offered a No Win No Fee agreement from one of the solicitors on our panel. Read on for more information on what exactly this means.
Psychological Damage – Claim With A No Win No Fee Lawyer
After reading this guide and learning about the compensation payout calculator, you may have decided that you would like to claim. In this section, we explore the meaning of No Win No Fee and what it means to have legal representation under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee arrangement.
If you suffered psychological damage and would like to claim, you could do so with the support of a No Win No Fee lawyer offering a CFA. When a lawyer offers their services on a No Win No Fee basis, they usually won’t charge upfront or ask you to cover any ongoing fees. When a claim successfully recovers compensation, they take a success fee from the award. The CFA caps the amount. Should they not recover compensation, then they usually won’t charge for their services.
If you have any questions about using a PTSD claim calculator or about No Win No Fee, our advisors can help. They are experts in personal injury claims. Our team can assess the potential of your claim and if it seems like you could recover compensation, you could be connected with a lawyer from our panel. Our lawyers typically offer No Win No Fee arrangements.
You can speak to an advisor by:
- Calling 0161 696 9685
- Contact us online
- Use our live webchat.
Contact Our Team For Help Using Our Mental Health Compensation Calculator
You may have decided that, rather than use a mental health compensation calculator to value your claim; we can help you with this. You can call our claims team, and they can provide you with important facts such as the personal injury claims time limit that will apply.
They can also help you to arrange for a solicitor to value your claim for you. You can use the information below to get in touch with us. Our team of advisors will be ready and waiting to provide you with the free legal advice you need.
You can get in touch by:
- Telephone on 0161 696 9685
- Via our live webchat
- Using our contact form
Useful Mental Health Resources
Here are some links to some of the other claims guides we have published on this website.
How To Claim For Medical Negligence
Claiming For A Child Brain Injury
Making A Claim For Sexual Abuse
And here are a few links to other websites that have some useful information.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Explained
The Mental Health Act- NHS Guide
NHS- Therapies and Counselling
Other Guides You Can Check Out
Frequently Asked Questions On Mental Health Compensation Payouts
Below, we are going to try and provide simple and straightforward answers to common mental health claim questions.
Can I claim for physical symptoms too?
Sometimes mental illnesses can cause physical issues, like headaches or weight loss. If this is the case, and your mental injury was caused by a breach of duty of care, they could be included in your claim.
Could you claim compensation for just anxiety?
Yes, you could be able to claim for anxiety, if it was caused by the actions of a liable third party. To find out if you have a valid claim, call and speak to one of our claim advisors, they can help you with this.
Could you claim for work-related stress and anxiety?
Yes. If your employer failed to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that you didn’t experience any mental injury, then they could be liable for the harm caused to you. As a result, you may be able to claim.
You’re welcome to contact Legal Helpline if you would like to speak to an advisor about topics such as using a mental health compensation calculator or claiming with the support of mental health solicitors who offer No Win No Fee agreements.
You can reach us by using the number at the top of this page.
Written by MW
Edited by FS