Emotional Distress After an Accident
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The crash may be weeks behind you, and the nights are still hard. Sleep comes in pieces, the moment of impact replays without warning, and getting behind the wheel brings a fear you never had before. You may be carrying that yourself or watching someone you love tense up at every set of brake lights.
Emotional injuries do not appear on an X-ray or an MRI, so they are easy for other people to set aside, including the adjuster reviewing your claim. Without medical care and a clear record, an insurer can treat the part of the crash that changed your daily life as if it were not an injury at all.
Matz Injury Law handles the Michigan claims where the hardest part to prove is the part no one can see. We build these cases on the medical record, the treatment history, and the changes the people around you notice because that is what makes emotional harm count.
Why Injured Michigan Clients Choose Matz Injury Law
Emotional distress is harder to document than a broken bone, and the documentation is what decides whether it gets valued. We build that record around how the crash changed your health, your work, your relationships, and your daily life.
More Than $300 Million Recovered for Michigan Injury Clients
Our attorneys have recovered more than $300 million for injured people and grieving families across Michigan. The crashes behind these numbers are the kind that leave survivors and family members carrying psychological injury long after the physical treatment ends.
Our published results include:
- $4.15 million settlement for the family of a college student killed in a crash while riding a motorcycle
- $3.45 million settlement for a family who lost loved ones to an inattentive cement truck driver
- $1 million settlement for a Northern Michigan woman who fractured both ankles after being rear-ended by a gravel truck
- $680,000 arbitration award for a crash victim with back injuries requiring fusion
Every case depends on its own facts, injuries, insurance coverage, and available evidence. Past results do not predict the outcome of another claim.
How We Personally Handle Emotional Distress Claims
Steven Matz and Jared Matz handle injury claims themselves rather than passing them to associate attorneys, so when you call about a bad week or a new symptom, you reach the lawyer working your file. On an emotional distress claim that access does real work because the proof is the day-to-day detail you notice between appointments.
When needed, we travel to clients throughout Michigan, including the Upper Peninsula, so distance from our Southfield office does not keep you from being represented.
Our 22% contingency fee leaves more of the recovery with you and your family, and there is no fee at all unless we recover compensation.
Our Emotional Distress Attorneys
Client Testimonials
“We had an excellent experience working with Steve Matz. He was knowledgeable, responsive, and took the time to explain every step of the process in a way that was easy to understand. His attention to detail, professionalism, and dedication to achieving the best possible outcome gave me confidence throughout the entire experience. I truly appreciated his prompt communication and willingness to answer questions whenever they arose. I highly recommend Steve Matz to anyone looking for an attorney who is both highly skilled and genuinely committed to his clients.” — Wendy K.
“I was given Steven’s information from my cousin that retained his services, and I have to say I am so pleased we did the same. The leave of professionalism was outstanding, I never had to wonder or guess what was going to happen. Steven and his staff kept us up to date and informed in every step throughout our process. I highly recommend Matz Injury Law Firm.” — Michelle W.
“Steve was communicative, clear, highly competent, efficient and friendly. I have not pursued anything like this before and felt that I was in good hands. I was satisfied with the settlement – and would highly recommend Matz Injury Law to those who are looking for this type of service.” — Jennifer B.
What Emotional Distress After a Serious Accident Can Feel Like
The injuries hardest to describe after a crash are the ones that never show up on a scan. You may not connect changes in your mood, your sleep, or your temper to the collision, and you may wonder whether what you are feeling counts as an injury at all.
Emotional distress after an accident can include:
- Anxiety triggered by traffic, brake lights, or screeching tires
- Depression, low mood, or loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
- Post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as flashbacks or nightmares
- Panic attacks that seem to come without warning
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- Persistent fear of driving or riding in a vehicle
These symptoms are not signs of weakness. A doctor or a mental health provider can evaluate what you are experiencing, recommend treatment, and put on record how the symptoms affect your daily life.
Emotional trauma after a Michigan crash affects each person differently, and some people develop adjustment disorder after an accident as they struggle to cope with the changes the collision caused.
When Michigan Law Allows Recovery for Emotional Distress
Yes, Michigan law allows you to recover for emotional distress after an accident, and there is more than one route to it. No-fault PIP benefits can pay for reasonably necessary mental health treatment as an allowable expense under MCL 500.3107(1)(a). A claim against the at-fault driver can include emotional distress and mental anguish as part of your non-economic losses.
Emotional Distress in a Third-Party Injury Claim
Emotional distress, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life can form part of a third-party claim once your crash injuries meet Michigan’s threshold for non-economic damages. Under MCL 500.3135, that threshold is death, permanent serious disfigurement, or serious impairment of body function.
A serious impairment must be objectively manifested, affect an important body function, and affect your general ability to lead your normal life. Medical records, treatment notes, testimony from people close to you, and evidence of changes in your routine all help show that.
Fault affects what you can recover. If you are more than 50% at fault, Michigan law bars non-economic damages entirely. At 50% or less, your non-economic damages are reduced by your share of fault.
How Long You Have to File in Michigan
Michigan generally gives you three years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit, under MCL 600.5805. If that window closes before a suit is filed, courts will almost always refuse to hear the case, however serious the injury.
No-fault benefits carry a separate and much shorter deadline. A claim for PIP benefits generally has to be started within one year of the accident unless written notice of injury reached the insurer within that year, or the insurer has already paid benefits (MCL 500.3145). Two deadlines can run at once, so an early review is the reliable way to know which applies.
Separate Emotional Distress Claims and When They Apply
Two standalone claims exist, and neither fits an ordinary crash. Intentional infliction of emotional distress requires conduct Michigan courts describe as extreme and outrageous, carried out intentionally or recklessly, that causes severe emotional distress.
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is narrower still. It generally reaches a close family member who was present at the accident, or who suffered the shock at about the same time, and whose shock produced actual physical harm.
In an ordinary crash case, emotional distress belongs in the damages of the underlying injury claim. Whether the facts support a separate emotional distress lawsuit in Michigan takes a closer look at the specifics.
How Emotional Distress Is Valued in a Michigan Injury Case
If you are trying to work out what an emotional injury is worth, the honest answer is that there is no fixed formula. Emotional distress is a non-economic loss, so its value comes from how the crash changed your life.
Factors that can influence the value include:
- Severity and duration of your symptoms
- Treatment you receive and follow through on
- Effect on your work, sleep, relationships, and daily activities
- Strength of the medical evidence connecting your symptoms to the crash
- Testimony and other evidence showing how your life has changed
Exemplary damages come up in a narrower group of cases, usually where the conduct went past ordinary carelessness, as with an impaired driver who has done it before. Michigan does not allow punitive damages, so these are not a penalty against the driver. They compensate for the added humiliation and outrage that malicious, willful, or wanton conduct causes, and Michigan courts will not award them on top of a full recovery for the same mental anguish.
No lawyer can put an accurate number on a claim before reviewing the facts and the evidence. Compensation for emotional distress in a Michigan claim breaks into treatment costs, wage loss, and non-economic damages, and each one is proved differently.
What an Emotional Distress Lawyer Does for Your Michigan Claim
An emotional distress lawyer’s job here is evidence. We connect your doctors’ records to how the crash actually affected your daily life, because an insurer can contest that link at every step.
We also handle the insurance company for you, so the adjuster’s calls and paperwork do not fall on you while you are trying to heal.
When the other side requests a defense medical exam (DME), an evaluation with a doctor of its choosing, we prepare you for it and challenge findings that do not match your medical record.
When an insurer treats the distress as something in your head, we answer with the treatment record and statements from the people who live with you. Steven and Jared Matz do that work themselves, so nothing about your symptoms goes secondhand.
What to Do After an Accident to Protect an Emotional Distress Claim
The steps you take in the first days and weeks can protect a claim you may not be thinking about yet. A few simple habits make the emotional side of your injury much harder to dismiss later.
In the days after the crash, it can help to:
- Tell your doctor about the emotional symptoms, not only the physical ones, so they enter your medical record.
- Follow through on any counseling or mental health treatment that is recommended.
- Keep a simple written record of how your sleep, mood, and daily life have changed.
- Be cautious about giving a recorded statement or accepting a quick settlement before the full emotional toll is clear.
A lawyer can request your records, keep the adjuster’s demands from landing on you, and see that the emotional harm is documented while you focus on getting better.
Accidents That Often Leave Michigan Victims With Emotional Distress
Emotional distress can follow any serious crash, whatever the vehicle involved. Our Michigan personal injury team handles these claims across the state:
- Car accidents, where an intersection or rear-end crash can leave a lasting fear of driving
- Motorcycle accidents, where a rider absorbs the full impact
- Truck collisions, where the size difference makes injuries severe
- Head and brain injuries, where the survivor carries the injury and the memory of it
The type of crash changes which coverage applies and what evidence exists, and both shape how the emotional distress part of a claim gets built.
Get Your Michigan Emotional Distress Claim Reviewed Before the Insurer Values It
The emotional weight of a serious crash does not lift on a schedule, and it rarely reaches its worst point in the first week. We treat that harm as an injury to be documented and valued alongside the physical one. A free consultation costs nothing, and it is worth having before you give a recorded statement or accept a settlement while the full toll is still unfolding.
Reach us through our contact form or call 866-226-6833. There is no fee unless we recover compensation for you.
Written By Steven Matz
Steven J. Matz is the founder of Matz Injury Law, specializing in personal injury litigation with a focus on car accident victims. With over 40 years of legal experience, Mr. Matz has achieved numerous million-dollar settlements. He holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized among Michigan’s Top Attorneys. Steven J. Matz is a frequent lecturer on legal ethics and personal injury law, and serves on the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board.
