How Much Compensation for Emotional Injuries?

Our clients sometimes incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. They should be compensated for those bills. But the bigger harm in personal injury cases is the physical and emotional pain and suffering that comes with the victims’ injuries.

Today, we will look at average compensation for emotional injuries in an accident and medical malpractice cases to get a better idea of how much money victims can expect to receive as compensation for this type of intangible but often the most important injury.

What Do Statistics Show About Average Emotional Injuries Settlement Value?

Let’s start out with some hard numbers on compensation for emotional injuries nationally, provided by Jury Verdict Research. This category includes cases involving emotional distress or post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Year	Award Median	Probability Range	Award Range	Award Mean
2004	$76,500	$10,489 – $313,750	$1 – $111,500,000	$1,055,011
2005	$85,692	$12,158 – $363,126	$1 – $200,000,000	$724,153
2006	$118,293	$14,651 – $662,500	$1 – $27,500,000	$1,269,809
2007	$94,234	$13,750 – $406,200	$1 – $23,550,000	$788,988
2008	$100,060	$20,000 – $356,250	$1 – $188,000,000	$2,667,935
2009	$57,500	$10,000 – $287,500	$1 – $21,000,000	$425,814
2010	$45,000	$6,000 – $250,000	$1 – $2,798,251	$236,998
Overall	$81,000	$10,789 – $373,750	$1 – $188,000,000	$1,072,139

What jumps out at you in these numbers? First, they are thirteen years old. Sorry about that. But I don’t think the trial and settlement values have changed that much in the last 20 years I have been a plaintiffs’ lawyer. These numbers are probably fair markers in 2023.

The median award is about 12 times less than the average award.

Why is that? The average jury payout is almost invariably higher than the median award because the very large verdicts tend to lift the average. So the average settlement payout gets more attention but statisticians focus on the median with data like this.

What Is the Value of Emotional Injuries in Wrongful Death Cases?

But the big reason the gap is so wide here between median and average is that there are two kinds of emotional injury lawsuits: wrongful death and non-wrongful death.

Defense lawyers think fothe value of emotional injuries in Maryland for older victims less than it would be for a younger person. That would be true except that we have a cap on non-economic damages in Maryland wrongful death cases.

So almost any wrongful death case will get up to the cap on non-economic damages. No defense lawyer will argue to a jury that the death of a person — the loss of whatever time they had left — is less than a million dollars. (Nursing home case update: yes, someone made that argument just last week.) These “sentimental losses” as they are sometimes called, tragically have the same value in Maryland because of our stone ages cap on a jury’s right to award an amount they believe is most appropriate.

Damages Available for Emotional Injuries

Emotional distress damages are a type of compensation awarded to a plaintiff who has suffered emotional harm as a result of another’s wrongful conduct. Rarely does an emotional damages case stand alone. Instead, emotional distress damages are typically awarded more tangible harm like medical treatment. There are several types of emotional distress damages that may be awarded in a lawsuit, including:

Pure suffering damages: Pure suffering l damages are awarded for non-specific emotional harm, such as depression, anxiety, or loss of enjoyment of life. These damages are not based on any specific physical injury or financial loss. Instead they compensate the victim for the overall intangible impact that the wrongful conduct has had on their emotional well-being.
Medical treatment: Special damages are awarded for specific emotional harm, such as medical bills or lost wages resulting from emotional distress. These damages are intended to compensate the plaintiff for any actual financial losses that have been incurred as a result of the emotional distress. Again, most cases where there is a settlement or a jury award include these damages.
Punitive damages: Punitive damages are awarded in addition to compensatory damages and are intended to punish the defendant for particularly egregious conduct that caused the emotional distress. Punitive damages are typically awarded in cases where the defendant’s conduct was intentional (Maryland requires this), reckless, or particularly malicious.
Loss of consortium: Loss of consortium damages are awarded to a spouse or family member of the plaintiff who has suffered emotional distress as a result of the plaintiff’s injury. These damages are intended to compensate the spouse or family member for any loss of companionship or support resulting from the plaintiff’s emotional distress.

What Are the Types of Emotional Injury in Non-Death Cases?

So what about emotional injury claims in non-death cases? Here are some examples of common emotional injury cases:

Emotional distress because of witnessing an injury or death to another person (in the “zone of danger”)
Emotional distress of not being able to see or play with your child
Post-traumatic stress
Anxiety about potential future disease or death from an accident
Depression about the impact of physical injuries
Loss of consortium

What is the Value of These Types of Emotional Injury Cases?

The value ranges from the pennies to millions. There is probably not an area of case evaluation that has more of a mercurial “it depends” factor than wiis intangible injury. Sometimes, emotional injuries are the bulk of a personal injury claim. In other cases, the payout is almost zero for mental anguish. People react differently to the same trauma. The key is how much suffering has been endured, would a reasonable person similarly situated endure that suffering, and whether the plaintiff’s attorney and the victim can adequately convey it to a jury.

Sex abuse victim claims in Maryland

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

In Maryland, to bring the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the standard is whether the emotional injury is so acute that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it.

Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a lviable claim in Maryland that allows individuals to seek compensation for severe emotional harm caused by intentional or reckless conduct. To succeed in an IIED claim, the plaintiff must prove that:

The defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct that was intended to cause, or recklessly disregarded the probability of causing, emotional distress;
The plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress as a result of the defendant’s conduct;
The defendant’s conduct was the cause of the plaintiff’s emotional distress; and
The emotional distress must be severe

The standard for what constitutes “extreme and outrageous conduct” is high, and it must be beyond all bounds of decency, shocking to the conscience, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. Examples of conduct that may meet this standard ot get over the summary judgment hurdle with a Maryland judge include physical violence, severe harassment, or threats of harm. Cruel things said in a romantic relationship gone bad are unlikely to climb this bar.

Maryland courts are strict on these lawsuits. The evidence must be well-detailed to give the jury a foundation to quantify the injury. Emotional injury claims also seem to kinda/sorta require that there be an injury capable of objective determination and that the evidence comes from more than just the victim’s say so. (Our law firm has only handled intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuits in medical provider sexual assault cases.)

Pure Emotional Injuries Versus Physical/Emotional Injuries

This issue can be summarized as follows: emotional pain and suffering personal injury cases without physical pain are usually a very steep hill to climb. Don’t get me wrong. These can be very large cases under the right circumstances, again often involving sexual abuse. But most of these cases fail.

How Much Money Can I Sue for Emotional Distress?

In Maryland, you can sue for all your economic losses and in and suffering up to Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages. (There is a separate cap for malpractice cases.) So you can claim up to the cap for pain and suffering PLUS any economic losses that you have.

You no longer sue for a specific amount in a Maryland’s personal injury or wrongful death cases Sure, you still see the Baltimore Sun reporting on a $100 million lawsuit but that is from personal injury lawyers looking to get attention. Maryland law specifically states not to set an amount in what we call the ad damnum clause.

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Hiring a Maryland Lawyer for Your Claim

My law firm handles serious personal injury cases. If you have harmed by negligence, call us today at 410-779-4600 or get a free online consultation.