Economic Loss and Psychiatric Injury
Pure economic loss from negligent acts or statements and psychiatric injury claims by primary and secondary victims.
How to study for A-level Law
Learn each rule with its authority, practise identifying issues in factual scenarios, and develop balanced evaluation that reaches a supported legal conclusion.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Pure economic loss is generally restricted, with negligent-misstatement liability requiring analysis of an assumption of responsibility or sufficiently proximate relationship.
Exam cue: Classify the loss before applying a duty rule: physical damage, consequential economic loss or pure economic loss.
Concept 2
Psychiatric injury must be a recognised condition and the control mechanisms differ for primary and secondary victims.
Exam cue: For statements, examine purpose, reliance, responsibility and the relationship between adviser and recipient.
Concept 3
Policy concerns about indeterminate liability, proof, proximity and fairness shape both areas and should be evaluated explicitly.
Exam cue: For psychiatric harm, identify the victim category and apply the corresponding foreseeability and proximity controls.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Treating all financial consequences as unrecoverable pure economic loss.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Assuming careless words and careless acts use identical duty analysis.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Using ordinary grief or distress as a substitute for legally recognised psychiatric injury.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Memory anchors
Pure economic loss
Financial loss independent of physical injury or property damage.
Negligent misstatement
Careless information may create liability where responsibility and reasonable reliance are established.
Primary victim
A person directly involved in the incident and within the relevant range of physical danger.
Secondary victim
A witness outside physical danger who must satisfy additional control mechanisms.
Policy controls
The law limits duty to keep liability principled and proportionate.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
AQA-only tort scope — A careless driver damages a shop's wall, forcing closure and lost profits. How are profits during repair classified?
AQA-only tort scope — A power cable serving a factory is damaged, but the factory owns neither cable nor damaged machinery and loses sales. What kind of loss is this?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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