Psychiatric Harm Flashcards
What is the general rule for pure psychiatric harm?
The defendant does not owe any duty of care to a claimant not to cause pure psychiatric harm.
What is the defining feature of pure psychiatric harm
It is caused without any physical impact or injury to the claimant?
What are the limiting factors for which pure psychiatric harm will give rise to a duty of care?
The injury must be caused by a sudden shock and either a medically recognised psychiatric illness or a shock-induced physical condition.
Will a duty of care arise if harm is caused by a gradual build-up of events?
No
What are the two types of victims?
Primary victim
Secondary victim
Who is a primary victim?
A victim who was in the actual area of danger or reasonably believed that he was in danger.
What are the requirements for a duty of care to be owed to a primary victim?
Primary victims are owed a duty of care in relation to their pure psychiatric harm, provided the risk of physical injury was foreseeable;
For primary victims, it is not necessary for the risk of psychiatric harm to be foreseeable.
What are the requirements for a duty of care to be owed to a secondary victim?
It must be reasonably forseeable that a person of normal fortitude in the claimant’s position would suffer a psychiatric illness.
The claimant must have a close relationship of love and affection with the person who is endangered by the defendant’s negligence.
The claimant must be present at the accident or its immediate aftermath.
The claimant must see or hear the accident, or its immediate aftermath, with their own senses.
Who is a secondary victim?
Someone who witnesses injury to someone else or fears for the safety of another person.
What constitutes a relationship of love and affection?
Where a relationship of parent/ child, husband/ wife and fiancé/ fiancée exists, there is a
rebuttable presumption of a relationship of close ties of love and affection.
If the claimant falls outside the categories where close ties of love and affection can be
presumed, the claimant must prove that a close relationship of love and affection existed.
Will witnessing the injuries to a love one in hospital shortly after an accident be in the IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the incident?
Yes
Does the duty of care arise for secondary victims who heard of the incident via third party communication?
No
Will a live television broadcast be sufficient to satisfy the requirement that the secondary victim must see the accident with their own senses?
It might if the impact of the simultaneous television pictures
would be as great, if not greater, than the actual sight of the accident.
How are rescuers treated when they suffer pure psychiatric harm?
If a rescuer has been in the actual area of danger they are a primary victim
If a rescuer has not been in the actual area of danger so that they have not been exposed to any risk of physical injury, they will be classed as a secondary victim.
How does the egg-shell skull rule operate for secondary victims?
They must still show that it was reasonably foreseeable
that a person of normal fortitude in their position would suffer a psychiatric illness and then they can rely on the egg-shell skull rule.
