Compensation for sucicide witness with emotional distress?
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Compensation for sucicide witness with emotional distress?
I was a witness to a horrific sucicide, by gun shot, a
few months ago. It happened in the victims car, that
me a another person were in. After months of
distress and counseling, it is still all I think about, I
now need help with mental health bills. Would the
victims insurance policy cover this?
Asked on March 26, 2016 under Personal Injury, Alaska
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
No, the victim's insurance will not cover this. With very few exceptions, which this does not fall under, there is no compensation for emotional distress--the law simply does not provide compensation for this as a general mattter, because it is so unquantifiable and subjective, and because (given that it's impossible to know what was in someone's head, or what other issues or trauma they were dealing with) it's so difficult to establish or prove causality.
Also consider that to even try to get compensation--which again, would almost certainly fail--you'd have to sue the suicide's estate or family for the money. Is that really something you want to even try to do?
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