| Abstrakt: |
In our legal system, individuals who have suffered emotionally at the hands of another may be entitled to financial compensation proportionate to the psychic trauma incurred. In many states, however, monetary awards for those left behind following the death, through negligence, of a family member are limited to such things as compensation for lost wages. Juries are expressly precluded from considering the survivors' emotional distress. Accordingly, the author has developed testimony, based on the dynamics of the normal family system, which circumvents this arbitrary exclusion, and which will enable family therapists to make a contribution, in court, to determinations of fair compensation to plaintiff/survivors in wrongful death litigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
