Work-related suicide: A review of the judicial approaches in United States, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom

Abstract

Work-related death by suicide raises a number of difficult issues in the context of workers' compensation. Workers' compensation statutes usually prevent recovery of compensation where an injury is self-inflicted. Additionally compensation is usually denied where the nexus between employment and injury is broken. Both these matters are considerations in cases where work-cause injury results in a worker taking their own life. This paper examines the different approaches to the issue of work suicide in four major English common law jurisdictions. This survey concludes that all jurisdictions have gradually moved away from an approach, which restricted compensation for suicide to a more contemporary approach, which has removed most of the barriers for compensation for suicide.