Mental Harm

Mental Harm is a potential injury found in Unintentional Delicts.

It is sometimes refered to as Nervous Shock or Psychiatric Injury.

Who can claim for Mental Shock
This injury is only available for recognised mental disorders. It must have been induced by "Nervous Shock" - the sudden appreciation by sight or sound of a horryfing event which violently agitates the mind - meaning gradual effects are not allowed.

Page v Smith established that when the harm caused is purely mental, rather than physical, claims can still be brought for those in the area of potential physical harm.

That those outside of this zone, and are meerely witnesses to the event outside of the zone of harm are not covered, as in Bourhill v Young; however a wife of a seriously injured man who rushed to his bedside in McLoughlin v O'Brian was able to claim for the psyciatric disorder she suffered after seeing her husband in such a state; as she had personally witnessed the aftermath she was found to be in the zone of harm.

The criteria were clarified further in Alcock v South Yorkshire Police Which followed the Hillsborough football disaster. They established for a secondary victim to have a valid claim there must a bond of love and affection (which could be assumed in the case of close relations), and that the person must have witnessed the disaster or aftermath in person - not on television, or just be called upon to identify a victim hours after the fact.

The "Eggshell Skull" rule, in Simmons v British Steel was included in mental shock cases by Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust, meaning the susceptibility of the claimiant to mental conditions is not relevant to a claim.