Duty of Care for Psychiatric Injury

Liability in Negligence for Psychiatric Injury and Pure Economic Loss

In this module, we look at the duty of care to avoid causing psychiatric injury, with special reference to the condition of medical recognition, and focus in particular on (i) why we have special duty of care rules in the case of psychiatric injury (ii) the distinction between medically recognised psychiatric injury and normal human emotion (iii) the illustration of this distinction in the case of Riley v Merseyside Regional Health Authority (1994) and Hicks v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (1992) (iv) criticisms of this approach, and different approaches in other common law countries.

Duty of Care for Psychiatric Injury

In this module, we look at the duty of care to avoid causing psychiatric injury, with special reference to the condition of medical recognition, and focus in particular on (i) why we have special duty of care rules in the case of psychiatric injury (ii) the distinction between medically recognised psychiatric injury and normal human emotion (iii) the illustration of this distinction in the case of Riley v Merseyside Regional Health Authority (1994) and Hicks v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (1992) (iv) criticisms of this approach, and different approaches in other common law countries.