As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has called for reform of the law on psychiatric injury.
APIL has effectively called for an expansion to the category of individuals who can make psychiatric injury claims and to loosen the strict criteria that applies to these cases.
Case Law on Psychiatric Injury Claims
The current rules for psychiatric injury claims arise from the case of Alcock v Chief Constable of Yorkshire Police. This was a claim brought by a number of individuals for psychiatric injuries after tragically witnessing family members and friends killed in the Hillsborough disaster. The Court in this case split claimants into two groups;
- Primary victims – those that were physically injured or who were at risk of injury
- Secondary victims – not physically injured or at risk of injury
Primary victims were automatically able to make psychiatric injury claims, whilst secondary victims had to satisfy a number of criteria to be able to bring a claim. This set a precedent thereon for other individuals making similar claims.
One such criteria is that the claimant (the individual making the claim) must show a sufficiently close relationship between them and the deceased or injured person. This is often described as a “close tie of love or affection” and is assumed between parents and children, spouses and fiancés. However, in other relationships, such as those between siblings, the close relationship must be proven.
There is also a requirement for the event causing the injury to be ‘shocking’ with the shock being a sudden assault on the claimant’s nervous system.
There are other criteria which apply, however it is in relation to the two criteria set out above that reform is considered necessary. APIL are calling for the law to recognise close ties within other relationships such as between brothers and sisters and civil partners. They further call for the term ‘shocking’ in relation to the event which caused the injury, to be replaced with ‘distressing’.
If you have any questions in relation to the topics discussed in this article, please contact our expert Personal Injury team in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.