Psychiatric injury and PTSD brackets in Ireland: what the Guidelines say

Not every injury is physical. The Personal Injuries Guidelines have a chapter for psychiatric damage, with two sections and eight brackets, and since 2023 the Injuries Resolution Board can assess a psychological injury on its own. This guide gives the brackets exactly as the Guidelines set them, the threshold a claim has to meet, and the considerations that place an injury within a bracket.

The threshold: a recognisable psychiatric injury

Chapter 4 of the Personal Injuries Guidelines opens with a warning to judges that applies just as much to anyone reading the brackets:

It is important for judges in all courts to remember that not all damage warrants an award of compensation. In the absence of physical injury, recovery is permitted only in respect of recognisable psychiatric injury (see: Kelly v. Hennessy [1995] 3 I.R. 253). For example, upset, distress, grief, disappointment and humiliation, do not attract compensation.

So the first question is not how bad things feel but whether there is a diagnosis. Depression, an adjustment disorder, an anxiety disorder, PTSD: these are recognisable psychiatric injuries when a doctor diagnoses them. Being shaken, frightened or miserable after an accident, without more, is not.

Grief is treated separately. The Guidelines note that grief experienced by a dependant may attract an award under Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961, which is the statutory solatium covered in the fatal accidents guide.

Every figure in this guide is the 2021 figure. The 16.7% increase approved by the Judicial Council in December 2024 is not in force; the changes page explains.

Section A: psychiatric damage generally

The table gives the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like this, with the Guidelines' own headings.

The descriptions turn on two of the chapter's considerations, interference with quality of life and education, and impact on work, and on the prognosis. The Guidelines' word for severe is "very poor"; for serious, "more optimistic"; for moderate, "good". The dividing lines are about the future as much as the past.

For minor psychiatric damage, the Guidelines add that "in cases where only modest or no intervention was required in terms of treatment, damages should be very much to the lower end of the bracket", and list further considerations: the duration of the injury, its impact on daily activities, the extent of any treatment, and whether sleep was affected and to what extent.

Section B: post-traumatic stress disorder

The Guidelines confine this section to "those in which there is a specific diagnosis of a reactive psychiatric disorder following an event which creates psychological trauma in response to either experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event". They list the symptoms that may be present: distressing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, sleep disturbance, avoidance, mood disorder, suicidal ideation and hyperarousal.

The table gives the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like this.

A diagnosis of PTSD is what places an injury in this section rather than section A. The two sections overlap in their figures, and the Guidelines do not say one is "worth more" than the other: they are two descriptions of two kinds of injury.

The considerations

Both sections use the same nine considerations, set out at the start of chapter 4:

1. Age;
2. Interference with quality of life and education;
3. Impact on work;
4. Impact on interpersonal relationships;
5. Whether medical assistance has been sought;
6. Nature, extent and duration of treatment undertaken and/or medication prescribed;
7. Likely success of treatment;
8. Prognosis, to include any future vulnerability;
9. The extent and/or nature of any associated physical injuries.

Three of the nine are about treatment: whether help was sought, what it was, and whether it is likely to work. That is why the medical record matters so much for a psychological injury. A person who saw their GP, was referred, attended counselling or took prescribed medication has a record that describes the injury; a person who struggled on alone may have the same injury and no record of it. The Form B guide covers what the Board's medical report records.

The ninth consideration, associated physical injuries, is where a psychological injury alongside a physical one is weighed. The Guidelines' approach to multiple injuries is to identify "the bracket of damages within the Guidelines that best resembles the most significant of the claimant's injuries", value it, and then "uplift the value to ensure that the claimant is fairly and justly compensated for all of the additional pain, discomfort and limitations arising from their lesser injury/injuries", so that "the overall award of damages made in a case involving multiple injuries should be proportionate and just". Two brackets are never added. The Guidelines explained guide quotes the paragraph in full.

Psychological-only claims at the Board

Before 2023 the Board could not assess a claim for a psychological injury on its own. The Personal Injuries Resolution Board Act 2022, commenced in February and December 2023, changed that. The Board now assesses psychological-only claims in the same way as any other: on the documents, with regard to the Guidelines, on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable, as the assessment guide describes.

The Board reported in its Annual Report 2025 that 15% of its awards that year involved a psychological injury, either alone or alongside a physical one. That figure and the Board's other figures are on the figures page, dated.

The Board's medical report is still needed. The Board's Form B is completed by the treating doctor, which for a psychological injury is often a GP; the Board may arrange its own examination, and a report from a psychologist or psychiatrist may be what describes the diagnosis and prognosis the brackets turn on.

Work stress and the courts' threshold

Occupational stress is a psychological injury with an extra hurdle. The courts require a recognised psychiatric injury and that the harm was foreseeable by the employer, following the Berber and Hatton line of authority. The bracket, once that hurdle is passed, is found in the same two sections. The repetitive strain, hearing loss and work stress guide covers the threshold and the date of knowledge, which for a psychological injury is usually the diagnosis.

Why no site can give a figure

Searches for how much PTSD or a psychological injury is worth all meet the same answer. The Guidelines give brackets described by prognosis, and a list of considerations that is mostly about treatment and the future. A description of symptoms points at a section and perhaps a bracket; only the medical evidence of diagnosis, treatment and prognosis places an injury within it, and only the Board or a court does the placing. A site can show the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like this. It cannot give the figure.

Where this leaves you

If a doctor has diagnosed a psychiatric injury, one of the eight brackets above describes it, and the prognosis in the medical evidence decides which. If there is no diagnosis yet, seeing your GP is the step that creates the record the Guidelines' considerations ask about. Lost earnings and the cost of counselling are special damages, added separately and covered in the special damages guide. The injury checker shows the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like yours, drawn to scale, with the considerations that move an injury within it.