Litigation-induced Trauma Sensitisation (LITS) — A Potential Negative Outcome of the Process of Litigation

From a personal, professional and theoretical perspective, the author (a clinical psychologist) proposes that the current practices of litigation after traumatic injury, especially the demand for repeated interviews of victims, actually exacerbate the trauma response. This process, which essentially sensitises the victim, interferes with and slows down the trauma resolution process. This delay is therapeutically costly for the victim, time costly for the courts and financially costly for the insurers. While appreciating the need of health, legal and insurance personnel for detailed information about the event and the physical and psychological injuries to the victim in compensation matters, the author suggests that the existing methods of gathering this information by those personnel is deleterious to the victim and the system. He proposes an alternative approach that would meet the needs of all the operatives in the system, particularly the victim, and would reduce therapy, rehabilitation and legal time and costs.