Psychiatric Injury (Paper 2)

Question 1

What is meant by psychiatric injury

Answer 1

Psychological damage suffered by the claimant as a result of the defendant’s negligence

Question 2

What is stage 1 of Psychiatric Injury

Answer 2

C must be suffering from a recognised psychiatric injury, not ordinary human emotions (Reilly v Merseyside HA)

Question 3

What was held in Sion v Hampstead HA

Answer 3

The injury must be caused by a traumatic event or an ‘assault on the senses’

Question 4

What is stage 2 of psychiatric injury

Answer 4

Must be established if the claimant is a primary victim or a secondary victim

Question 5

Define Primary Victim

Answer 5

Someone who is in the zone of danger and fears for their own physical safety

Question 6

Define Secondary Victim

Answer 6

A person who is not in the danger zone but witnesses the traumatic event but doesn’t fear for their own physical safety

Question 7

What did the case of Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire do

Answer 7

Established the criteria which secondary victims must satisfy before a claim for psychiatric injury is allowed

Question 8

Updated the Alcock rules

Answer 8

Paul, Polmear, and Purchase (2024)

Question 9

First Alcock control mechanism

Answer 9

Must have close ties of love and affection with the primary victim, which can cover close family relationships and close friendships

Question 10

Second Alcock control mechanism

Answer 10

Must witness the accident or its immediate aftermath with your own unaided senses

Question 11

McLoughlin v O’Brien

Answer 11

Immediate aftermath of an accident requires the primary victim to be in their immediate post-accident state and not ‘cleaned up’

Question 12

Third Alcock criteria

Answer 12

Must directly perceive the accident or its immediate aftermath

Question 13

Fourth Alcock criteria

Answer 13

Must be a causal connection between the traumatic event and the psychiatric injury suffered