The case EWJ v TVP provided judicial assessment of general damages following the introduction of the 18th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines (“JCG”). General damages were assessed at £160,000, comprising £135,000 for psychiatric injury and £25,000 for injury to feelings / aggravated damages. The court accepted that the claim fell within Chapter 4(C)(a) of the 18th edition JCG, the highest bracket for claims arising from sexual abuse.

Historic abuse claims often present difficult issues of causation and apportionment. Psychiatric harm may have developed over many years. Claimants may also have experienced other adverse life events, trauma, vulnerability, family issues, bereavement, relationship difficulties, or employment disruption. Those matters can make the assessment of what harm was caused by the abuse and what may be attributable to other causes difficult to assess particularly where there is often so much overlap.

That has often made psychiatric injury valuation in historic abuse claims complex. Parties may need to consider whether the abuse caused the psychiatric injury, materially contributed to it, exacerbated pre-existing vulnerability, or interacted with other events in the claimant’s life.

JCG Chapter 4(C) recognises that abuse-related injury is not simply ordinary psychiatric injury with an additional factual background. The category expressly takes into account features commonly present in abuse claims, including the nature and duration of the abuse, abuse of trust, the effect on relationships, future vulnerability, prognosis, and the impact of having to recount or relive the abuse through criminal, civil or other proceedings.

That is a more holistic and trauma-informed structure. It recognises that the litigation process itself can be relevant to the claimant’s experience, particularly where the claimant has had to revisit the abuse through criminal proceedings or civil litigation.

In EWJ the assessment proceeded without attendance or representation on behalf of the Defendant, so the case does not show active defendant pushback or contested argument around the application of Chapter 4(C)(a).

In EWJ the court identified the component parts of the general damages award, with £25,000 attributable to injury to feelings / aggravated damages, and £135,000 to psychiatric injury. This remains a somewhat ambiguous issue -  how do injury to feelings, aggravated damages and PSLA awards interact? Historically, approaches have varied. In some cases, injury to feelings has been treated as part of PSLA. In others, separate awards have been made. The JCG’s approach indicates that injury to feelings is generally included within the Chapter 4(C) brackets, rather than being added separately in a way that risks double recovery, but as seen in EWJ the courts still feel on occasion that separate awards are appropriate.

Ultimately every case turns on its individual circumstances and the only certainty is that no two assessments will ever be the same, careful consideration will always be needed of all evidence.