Can one claim compensation for nervous shock?

Abstract

Injury from nervous shock refer to the damage resulting from a person's mental breakdown or psychological disorder rather than the victim being directly injured in an accident. These types of injuries are directly related to one's mental integrity and therefore to one's personality rights, which are considered absolute rights. The lack of any special provision for injury from nervous shock in Turkish law may be interpreted as this being a non-compensable injury. However, such a misinterpretation would be contradictory to the general principles of Compensation Law, which seeks merely to protect victims who have been personally injured. Injury from nervous shock is legally recognized by foreign legal systems, although different legal opinions and regulations still occur in this regard. In accordance with modern legal understanding under current Turkish law, one closely related to the victim of a tort is also entitled to claim compensation for damage that has arisen due to a violation of their personal rights independent of the primary victim of the tort. Given the scope of injury from nervous shock, its legal nature and conditions (along with a detailed comparison with Damage by Reflection) shall be broadly examined in order to fully comprehend this fairly new term entered in Tort Law. This study focuses on these matters, as well as the historical development and the related provisions of its recognition in Swiss and Turkish legal systems, in addition to its nature as a form of direct injury and the ability of those not related to the victim to claim compensation for injury from nervous shock in Tort Law.