Under New York law, you can recover compensation for your emotional trauma, either as non-economic damages from your car accident if there was a serious injury or for infliction of emotional distress. To recover compensation as part of your car accident case , you need to prove you suffered a serious injury in the accident and that: Someone owed you a duty of care They breached that duty They emotionally injured you They caused damages for which you seek compensation To prove your emotional injuries, you need to provide hard evidence. You can do this by, among other things, seeking and obtaining treatment from your family physician and appropriate psychological professionals. You may wish to document your episodes as they happen, and testimony of friends and relatives who have witnessed your trauma may also be helpful. Emotional injuries are considered non-economic damages in New York. Non-economic damages are somewhat more subjective than economic damages and more difficult to prove. However, if you have been receiving treatment and have those medical bills and insurance claims on hand, they will ease your need to prove your suffering to some extent. Economic damages, in contrast, are usually out-of-pocket expenses or losses easily demonstrated by paid bills or unpaid payroll. Neither kind of damage has a cap in New York.