Saadati v. Moorhead – the most recent case from the Supreme Court of Canada addressing claims of personal injury of a psychological/mental nature. In overturning the British Columbia Court of Appeal decision, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a unanimous decision, reiterated the standard for compensable mental injury articulated in Mustapha, further noting that claimants are not required to demonstrate a recognizable psychiatric illness as a precondition to recovery; rather, they must show disturbance, rising above the “ordinary annoyances, anxieties and fears that come with living in civil society.” To prove this, evidence may be brought through expert evidence, however, lay evidence may also be sufficient.
Join Kathleen S. Duffield and Steven W. Lesiuk, counsel for the respondents (defendants) at the Supreme Court of Canada, for a discussion of the case and how defence counsel might marshal evidence to defend claims for mental injury.