Medico-legal implications of mobbing: A case law

Epidemiological data indicate that distress and psychological violence in the workplace are steadily increasing and have negative health effects for employees. Aside from the damages to the victims of violence, organizations are finding that workplace violence, bullying and mobbing may severely damage companies as well, for instance in terms of reduced productivity, absenteeism, excessive employees' turnover, impact to the company's reputation, medical and legal costs. We report of a case where psychological violence and organizational dysfunction, which represent the main sources of work related distress, have been intentionally used as a mean of vertical mobbing.An analysis of the information that was presented in Court to prove a case of mobbing permitted to track and identify the reasons and modalities of mobbing, as well as the etiopathogenesis of the resulting psychopathology and of the consequent somatic symptoms. This case description highlights the need to involve a multidisciplinary team (family doctor, occupational physician, psychiatrist and forensic physician) in order to ensure a fair analysis and-when appropriate-to suggest an appropriate treatment for individuals who file a mobbing claim.