Thresholds of Actionable Mental Harm in Negligence: A Policy-Based Analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Common law courts, in Canada and elsewhere, currently insist on proof of a recognizable psychiatric illness (RPI) before granting damages to plaintiffs seeking compensation for stand-alone mental harm caused by negligent acts. This article argues that the time has come to revisit this well-entrenched principle. The inquiry focuses specifically on the policy concerns underlying the current rule. As a first step, policy considerations for and against limiting the extent of actionable mental harm are canvassed and assessed. The author concludes that some of the perceived advantages of the RPI rule, in particular predictability, are debatable and that insistence on the traditional formula raises issues of access and fairness. As a second step, the option of eliminating all thresholds is examined and rejected in favour of a “no compensation for mere upsets” threshold. The author suggests that this threshold will allow courts to strike the correct balance between deterring legal actions based on “mere upsets” of life and recognizing the legitimacy of “mid-spectrum” mental harm, whether psychiatric, psychological, or emotional in nature. A ce jour, au Canada et ailleurs, les tribunaux de common law insistent sur la preuve d’un prejudice psychiatrique reconnu (PPR) lorsqu’il s’agit d’indemniser les demandeurs ayant subi un prejudice purement moral cause par la negligence d’autrui. Cet article suggere qu’il est temps de revoir ce principe bien etabli. La demarche est centree sur les considerations de politique generale qui soustendent l’etat actuel du droit. En premier lieu, l’auteure examine les questions de politique pour et contre la necessite de limiter l’etendue du prejudice moral indemnisable. Elle conclut que les avantages associes a la regle PPR ne sont pas probants et que le fait d’insister sur un tel palier souleve des questions d’acces et d’equite. En deuxieme lieu, l’auteure se penche sur la possibilite d’eliminer tous les paliers, mais cette option est rejetee en faveur d’un palier fonde sur la notion de non-indemnisation pour simple contrariete. Selon l’auteure, cette solution permettra aux tribunaux de prevenir les actions juridiques fondees sur les simples desagrements de la vie tout en reconnaissant la legitimite du prejudice moral sous toutes ses formes, qu’il soit psychiatrique, psychologique ou emotionnel.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.020 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.011 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.009 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".