Not all injuries are physical. Emotional distress can be just as significant and painful. If you or someone you love has suffered mental health symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or insomnia due to another person’s intentional or negligent behavior, suing for emotional distress in Minnesota may be an option. The personal injury attorneys at Sieben Polk Law Firm can help you understand your rights and options for pursuing compensation.
Emotional distress can result from a traumatic event, such as a car accident or another person’s intentional or reckless behavior. If you’ve suffered emotional harm caused by someone else, you may wonder if a lawsuit for emotional distress in Minnesota is an option.
While no two cases are alike, Minnesota law does allow emotional distress damages in certain circumstances. The best way to determine if you can sue for emotional distress is to consult a trusted personal injury attorney at Sieben Polk Law Firm in Eagan, Minnesota.
Can You Sue for Emotional Distress in Minnesota?
You may be eligible to sue for emotional distress in Minnesota if your case meets certain criteria. In general, emotional distress is mental suffering caused by a particular event.
The mental suffering associated with emotional distress extends far beyond the normal emotional responses associated with everyday life, such as anger, fear, or sadness. Instead, it affects a person’s ability to function and do daily activities. The symptoms of emotional distress can include, but are not limited to:
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Decreased energy levels
- Withdrawal from social activities
- Loss of interest in regular hobbies and activities
- Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
- Intense feelings of guilt, fear, or shame
- Thoughts of self-harm or suicide
- Excessive use of alcohol or drugs
- Unexplained physical ailments such as headaches, chest pain, or stomach issues
Minnesota law recognizes two distinct types of emotional distress claims: negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress. If you suffer from any combination of the above symptoms after a traumatic event, you may be able to pursue one of these claims depending on the particular circumstances that led to your emotional distress.
What Is Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress?
A negligent infliction of emotional distress, or NIED, claim arises when someone has suffered mental harm or injury due to another’s negligent behavior.
In many cases, this occurs when someone is physically injured by someone else’s negligence, and mental anguish results from the physical injury itself. For example, if you have suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident and experienced profound feelings of hopelessness due to the injury’s effect on your life, you could potentially bring a claim for NIED.
Less commonly, this type of claim may arise from events that involve no physical impact or harm. Such a claim could arise, for instance, if you suffered emotional trauma due to a motorcycle accident where you were not physically injured, but the negligent party’s behavior gave you reason to believe you were in imminent danger of injury.
Legal Requirements for a NIED Case in Minnesota
Your case must meet certain criteria to pursue a claim of NIED in Minnesota. These include the usual negligence requirements of duty, breach, causation, and harm:
- Duty of care: The party allegedly at fault, known as the defendant, had a legal obligation to act with reasonable care to avoid injuring others.
- Breach of duty: The party at fault breached their duty of care by failing to act reasonably under the circumstances.
- Causation: There is a direct link between the defendant’s breach of duty and the emotional distress suffered by the plaintiff, who is the party bringing the claim.
- Harm: The plaintiff has suffered significant emotional distress because of the defendant’s negligence.
In addition to these basic elements of negligence, Minnesota law considers whether the plaintiff was in the “zone of danger” at the time of the incident that led to their emotional distress. This means that if no physical harm occurred, the plaintiff must have been at risk of physical harm and reasonably feared for their own safety to be able to sue for NIED.
For instance, suppose you are involved in a car accident where you are not physically injured, but a loved one dies. Since you were in the car involved in the accident, you were likely in the zone of danger. If you suffer from emotional trauma due to the accident, you may have an NIED claim in addition to a wrongful death claim for your loved one’s death.
What Is Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress?
While many emotional distress claims in Minnesota are based on negligence, some cases may involve intentional infliction of emotional distress or IIED. This occurs when a defendant intentionally or recklessly causes the plaintiff severe emotional distress.
Legal Requirements for an IIED Case in Minnesota
Unlike NIED claims, the intentional tort does not require physical injury or that the plaintiff be in a zone of danger at the time of the incident. Rather, an IIED claim must meet the following criteria:
- Outrageous conduct: The defendant’s behavior was extreme and outrageous, which means their conduct was so atrocious it was beyond the bounds of decency.
- Intent or recklessness: The defendant intended for their conduct to cause emotional distress or acted with reckless disregard for the consequences.
- Causation: The defendant’s outrageous conduct directly caused the plaintiff’s emotional distress.
- Severe emotional distress: The plaintiff’s emotional distress is so severe that “no reasonable person could be expected to endure it.”
Several different scenarios could give rise to an IIED claim in Minnesota. Examples include false imprisonment, blackmail, sexual harassment, or any other act that a person would intend or reasonably foresee to cause severe emotional distress.
How Is Pain and Suffering Determined in Minnesota?
Emotional distress and pain and suffering are types of non-economic damages. The purpose of these damages is to compensate the plaintiff for the incident’s impact on their life. Examples of these damages include:
- Emotional distress or mental pain and suffering
- Physical pain and suffering
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship, consortium, or support
Minnesota law approaches each pain and suffering case individually, meaning there is no set rule for determining pain and suffering damages. However, there are a few potential ways of assessing damages in a pain and suffering case.
One approach for valuing non-economic damages is the multiplication approach, where the total amount of economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, are multiplied by three. You can also use the per diem approach, where a specific dollar amount is assigned for each day of suffering until the plaintiff is expected to reach maximum recovery.
What Evidence Is Needed to Prove Pain and Suffering?
The strength of evidence supporting your pain and suffering claim can greatly influence the amount of damages awarded. Whether you were involved in a truck accident, slip and fall, or another type of incident, an experienced personal injury lawyer can develop a strong argument on your behalf by using a variety of evidence to show all the ways you were harmed.
Examples of evidence that your lawyer may use to support your claim of emotional distress include:
- Proof of treatment by mental and physical health professionals for resulting conditions, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, or physical pain
- Personal journals detailing the injury’s day-to-day effect on your life
- Testimony from family and friends about how your injury has changed you from their perspective
- Performance records from work or school to show decreased productivity as a result of your pain and suffering
Ultimately, the best evidence to support your claim is your own testimony. Describing in detail—with emotional honesty—how the injury has changed your life can give jurors a more personal understanding of the harm you’ve suffered.
How Long Do I Have to File My Claim in Minnesota?
Like most states, Minnesota has a statute of limitations for filing emotional distress claims. This means you have a limited amount of time to file your claim after the date of the incident that caused your emotional distress.
Claims for pain and suffering, including emotional distress, usually fall under the category of personal injury in Minnesota. The statute of limitations for most Minnesota personal injury claims is six years. You may be barred from recovering compensation if you don’t file within this window.
What if I Am Partially at Fault for the Incident?
Many emotional distress cases in Minnesota involve some degree of fault from both parties. You may still be eligible for compensation if you are partially at fault for the incident that caused your emotional distress.
Minnesota uses a modified comparative negligence system, meaning you can only pursue compensation for emotional distress and other damages if you are less than 50 percent at fault for the incident. You cannot recover compensation if you’re 50 percent or more at fault.
The amount of damages you can collect is also reduced proportionately by your degree of fault. For example, if you are 25 percent at fault, you can still recover 75 percent of the total award.
What Pain and Suffering Damages Can I Recover?
The amount of damages you can recover for pain and suffering in Minnesota depends on various factors unique to your case. In general, the more severe and long-lasting the effects of your injury are, the more money you can pursue for emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Other factors that can influence the amount of damages available include the strength and quantity of evidence supporting your case, the degree of fault you were assigned, and the amount of insurance coverage available. A qualified personal injury lawyer can help you evaluate all these factors and determine how much money you may be eligible to recover for pain and suffering.
Is There a Limit to What I Can Recover in Minnesota?
The amount of damages you can recover for pain and suffering in Minnesota depends on various factors unique to your case. In general, the more severe and long-lasting the effects of your injury are, the more money you can pursue for emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Other factors that can influence the amount of damages available include the strength and quantity of evidence supporting your case, the degree of fault you were assigned, and the amount of insurance coverage available. A qualified personal injury lawyer can help you evaluate all these factors and determine how much money you may be eligible to recover for pain and suffering.
Our Personal Injury Attorneys Are Here to Help
Emotional distress is a very real consequence of many types of personal injuries, and you deserve compensation for how it has impacted your life. The team at Sieben Polk Law has been representing injured clients in the Upper Midwest for over 50 years, and we’ve seen first-hand the devastating effects an injury can have on a person’s mental and emotional health. We’ve also seen how adequate compensation can help victims start to heal and rebuild their lives.
If you or a loved one has experienced pain and suffering due to an accident, contact our experienced Eagan personal injury lawyers. Our team can help you understand your rights and legal options for pursuing an emotional distress lawsuit in Minnesota.
Call Sieben Polk Law at 651-437-3148 for a free consultation. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing until we have recovered compensation for your case, and there are no upfront costs to you.
