Serious Injury Claims

Serious Accidents

The vast majority of personal injury cases revolve around injuries from which people make a full recovery. You may slip on a wet supermarket floor, for example, or be involved in a relatively low speed Road Traffic Accident, and suffer injuries such as whiplash, bruising, cuts and perhaps a small fracture of a bone. This is not to trivialise such matters; even what seems like a fairly ‘minor’ injury can still involve a great deal of pain and distress, and can also lead to time spent off work, travel costs and other out of pocket expenses. However, there are also times when an injury can be life-changing, and cause serious, permanent damage to the person affected.

If the injury in question occurred because someone else was negligent then it’s only right and proper that you should be able to seek compensation – someone else has made a mistake because they didn’t pay due care and attention and you’re the one who’s been made to suffer, in physical, emotional and financial terms. Even if you’ll be able to get on with your life afterwards, personal injury compensation will hasten the speed with which you manage to pick up the pieces as well as underlining the fairness of a situation in which your pain is recognised and you are not left out of pocket. The principles underlying any claim for compensation are fairly simple:

1) You’ve been injured or become ill.
2) It wasn’t your fault.
3) The accident or injury was the result of negligence.

There’s no getting away from the fact that some injuries are more serious than others, and that the most serious can lead to the person involved leading a radically different and more difficult life than would otherwise have been the case. In cases such as these, personal injury compensation is more vital than ever.

If you, or someone close to you, have been seriously injured in a manner which is going to affect them for the rest of their life then the ramifications can be huge, both for the victim and their close family. A serious injury can greatly curtail your ability to earn a living and may even stop you being able to work at all, it could result in you requiring medical care and attention for the rest of your life and might even require the modification of the home in which you live or the purchase of an entirely new home.

The disruption to your life, the ongoing costs and the loss or current and potential earnings will all have to be taken into account when putting together a claim for compensation, and an experienced injury lawyer will know just how much you are entitled to and how to go about making sure you get it.

By their very nature, claims of this type are long and complex, often requiring input from medical and other experts, and having someone by your side every step of the way is absolutely vital. A strong case will consist of a demonstration of the extent of your injury, a convincing claim that the other party was at fault, and detailed records of every way in which this is going to affect you moving forward.

Brain Injury

In terms of severity, an injury to the brain is almost certainly one of the most dangerous it is possible to suffer. The precise details of any injury will vary from case to case, as will the manner in which it arose. For some it will involve a slip, trip or fall, for others a Road Traffic Accident, whilst a criminal assault, a case of medical negligence or virtually anything else which might damage this highly complex and delicate part of the body could equally be responsible for an injury the effects of which can be devastating.

In all of these cases, and any other in which negligent behaviour was present, it’s vital that you seek compensation to deal with the wide range of symptoms which might arise. Of course, it may be that the very nature of these symptoms will leave you unable to pursue a claim, even with expert help, in which case a loved one can pursue the claim on your behalf. The symptoms of a brain injury might include:

• Anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, difficulty controlling impulses such as anger.
• Memory problems, loss of ability to concentrate and pay attention, low tolerance of crowded, noisy environments, loss of insight and initiative.
• Loss of coordination, muscle rigidity and paralysis, epilepsy, difficulties forming speech, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, sexual dysfunction.

Any combination of these symptoms can have a devastating effect upon the victims’ life and the full extent of a brain injury may take some time to reveal itself. The problems for the victim can also weigh hugely upon close friends and relatives, with relatives listing the following as being the 10 most difficult problems:

• Personality changes
• Slowness
• Poor memory
• Irritability
• Bad temper
• Tiredness
• Depression
• Tension and anxiety
• Rapid mood changes
• Threats of violence

Looking at this list of symptoms, it’s clear that a brain injury can have a huge effect upon the life of the victim and of their nearest and dearest. Bearing this in mind, it’s only right that the responsible party should be made to pay an amount to recognise your suffering and to make the rest of your life, for you and your family, as bearable as possible.

Broken Bones

Compared to a brain injury, a broken bone or bones may seem fairly trivial, and indeed it is possible to suffer a minor fracture to a bone such as a finger or toe without even realising it has happened, but more serious injuries – such as might be sustained in a bad fall or a road traffic accident – can often lead to several months off work and a large amount of pain and immobility.

A compound fracture of the leg, for example, in which the broken bone protrudes through the skin, will probably require an operation to re-set it and will then take up to six months or perhaps even longer to fully heal. Depending on the type of work you do, this situation could mean having to spend a lengthy period away from work and a major drop in your earnings. If this happens because another party has been negligent then it’s reasonable to expect to be able to claim for your suffering and pain and to make sure you don’t have to spend any of your own money as a result of the injury.

Paralysis

Short of suffering a fatality in an accident, an injury which leaves you paralysed is as serious an injury as it is possible to contemplate, in terms of the limitations it will place on the rest of your life. The most common cause of paralysis is an injury sustained to the spinal cord, and this can take place in circumstances such as a road traffic accident, a sporting accident or an accident whilst working.

The severity of the paralysis involved will vary depending upon exactly where the spinal cord has been damaged – put simply, the higher up the spinal cord, toward the head, that the injury takes place, the worse, or more complete, the paralysis will be. The nature of the injuries which cause paralysis mean that the people who suffer are predominantly younger and male, with 80% of those suffering from a spinal cord injury being men, and the sufferers on the whole young adults. (Source: http://www.spinal-research.org/research-matters/spinal-cord-injury/facts-and-figures/)

The nature of this demographic means that those who are paralysed are losing a great deal in terms of the quality of their life and factors such as their ability to earn a living, extrapolated throughout the remainder of their working days. On top of that, the nature of paralysis means that those affected will require a modified living space and ongoing care for the rest of their lives.

If the accident which brought about the damage to the spinal cord was caused by the negligence of another party, such as a road user driving without care and attention, then they should be the ones who have to pay for the complete disruption of your life, and for the money you will have to pay out in terms of care costs and lost earnings. Any compensation awarded will be intended, initially, to reflect the gravity of your injury but also, in the longer term, to cover the costs of care and lost earnings. Whilst no amount of money will match the care of loved ones and your own will power, the ability to pay for specialised help will make a huge difference to your quality of life.

Every year, the Judicial College publishes a guide to the amount that should be paid out for specific personal injuries. These figures take into account pain and suffering only – other damages covering loss of earnings and medical costs are added on separately. Currently, the amount recommended by the guide is as follows:

— Tetraplegia (Quadriplegia): £262,350 to £326,700
— Paraplegia: £177,100 to £229,900

Fatal Accidents

If a loved one dies then the chances are that the grief and pain you feel will be too raw, initially at least, for you to even think about claiming compensation. If your loved one was killed in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence then this feeling of distress and grief will be heightened by a sense of injustice and unfairness, and, in some cases, the knowledge that a breadwinner has been lost and the rest of your life will have to be spent getting by without the income they used to bring in.

In these circumstances, claiming compensation isn’t about ‘cashing in’ or punishing the person responsible, it is about having some tangible recognition of the pain you’re being put through and spending the rest of your life without being further financially punished.

The difference between claims of this kind and the vast majority of compensation claims is that you will actually be claiming on behalf of another person. The categories of people who can make a claim in the event of losing someone close to them were set out in the Fatal Accidents Act of 1976, and are far more wide ranging than most people probably imagine.

The people who can claim damages from a neglectful party in the event of the death of a loved one include:

• A husband, wife or former spouse.
• A civil partner or former civil partner.
• A person who was living with the deceased for at least two years prior to their death.
• A parent or other dependant of the deceased.
• A person whom the deceased treated as if they were a parent.
• A child or other dependant of the deceased.
• A person who, following a marriage in which the deceased was involved, came to be treated by the deceased as a child of the family unit created.
• A brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew or cousin of the deceased.

If you feel that a loved one who falls into one of these categories has been killed because someone else was negligent, then it’s vital that you contact a personal injury lawyer at the first possible opportunity, in order to start building a case aimed at winning you the compensation which will help, in a small way, to get on with the rest of your life.