Serious Injury Claims Guide

After a serious accident, you may have suffered life-changing injuries that prevent you from returning to normal working and daily life. In this guide, we examine who could make serious injury claims following an accident that was not their fault.

We’ll examine key aspects of making a personal injury claim following a serious accident. This includes the eligibility criteria your case will need to meet, which third parties owe a duty of care, some examples of how serious accidents can occur and an examination of the claims time limit.

We have also included an explanation of how compensation is calculated in this type of claim, with some guideline compensation figures for your reference. Our final section looks at the No Win No Fee contract offered by our solicitors. In particular, we explain how you can benefit when claiming under such an agreement.

To get your free eligibility assessment or to ask any questions about the serious injury compensation claims process, contact us today via:

• Phone on 0161 509 2856
• Contact us online by completing our callback form.
• Open the live chat window on your screen now.

Select A Section

1. What Are Serious Injury Claims?
2. What Types Of Accidents Could Lead To A Serious Injury Claim?
3. What Types Of Injuries Would Be Considered Serious?
4. How Much Compensation Can Serious Injuries Be Worth?
5. What Is The Time Limit For Serious Injury Claims?
6. Can I Claim On Someone Else’s Behalf For A Serious Injury?
7. What Is The Serious Injury Claim Process?
8. Can I Make A Serious Injury Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis?
9. Learn More About How To Make A Personal Injury Claim

What Are Serious Injury Claims?

Serious injury claims are a type of personal injury claim that are made following accidents that cause serious harm. We’ll go into more detail in the next few sections but significant fractures, organ damage and head injuries are generally deemed to be serious injuries.

The eligibility criteria to make a serious injury compensation claim can be summarised as follows:

1. You were owed a duty of care by a third party.
2. That third party breached this duty in some way.
3. This breach resulted in an accident in which you were seriously injured.

Depending on the situation, different laws govern who owes a duty of care. These laws are:

• The Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974 imposes a duty of care on employers to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of their employees. Britain’s national health and safety regular, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publish guidance on matters such as vehicle safety, training and risk assessments to help employers meet their obligations.
• Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, the parties in control of public spaces, known as occupiers, must take steps to ensure the reasonable safety of visitors to their premises.
• Every road user must try to avoid causing accidents by using the roads safely and responsibly. This is their duty of care. They must also adhere to the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code. The highway code imposes greater levels of responsibility on those most likely to cause harm, namely the drivers of large vehicles such as HGVs and buses.

To get the validity of your potential claim assessed free of charge, reach out our advisors today.

What Types Of Accidents Could Lead To A Serious Injury Claim?

Now we’ve explained the eligiblity criteria to make a serious injury claim. Here are a few examples of how such injuries could be caused by a third party breaching their duty of care.

• You were cycling across a junction. A drunk driver failed to stop and collided with you, throwing you off your bike. You experienced multiple broken bones in your legs, as well as a serious head injury.
• A lack of training resulted in your colleagues overloading a warehouse crane. You were directing the crane operator from the ground when the cable snapped, and the load fell. You dived out of the way but suffered a badly crushed arm, necessitating an amputation.
• Management at a museum had not taken measures to repair a balcony railing despite multiple staff reporting that one of the support pillars was coming loose. The railing gave way when you lent it, causing you to fall from a considerable height. You sustained a serious neck injury, as well as fractures in your arms and ribs.

This is a non-exhaustive list, so to get an eligibility assessment for your particular circumstances, contact our team today using the information provided below.

What Types Of Injuries Would Be Considered Serious?

An injury is defined as serious if it is life threatening or has a significant long term impact on your day to day life. We have given a few features of serious injuries with examples here:

• Substantial impacts on mobility and your ability to complete daily tasks, such as severe bone fractures to your legs or arms.
• Major internal organ damage, such as to the heart, lungs or brain that presents a threat to life or significant functional impairment.
• Injuries that require long treatment periods or major surgery.
• Injuries that result in a significant amount of time off work.

Various types of injury could meet the threshold for serious, and many circumstances could give rise to serious injuries. To get a free assessment of your eligibility to claim, contact our advisory team today.

How Much Compensation Can Serious Injuries Be Worth?

There are two heads of loss that compensation may be awarded under in serious injury claims. These are:

• Compensation for the physical and psychological harm caused will be awarded under general damages.
• The financial impacts of that harm can be compensated under special damages.

Solicitors can make use of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) in conjunction with your medical evidence to determine a potential compensation figure for general damages. The JCG document contains guideline compensation brackets for a range of injuries.

We have set a relevant selection of these brackets to give you an idea of the sorts of injuries you could receive compensation for. The first figure is not from the JCG, however.

Compensation Amounts

Please be advised that these values have been included to act as guidance only.

1. Multiple Very Severe Injuries together with significant financial losses such as lost earnings, medical expenses and care costs- Up to £1,000,000 and above.
2. Paralysis – Tetraplegia (a) – Paralysis of the upper and lower limbs. Cases where the injured person is not in physical pain and has a life expectancy are generally valued towards the middle of this bracket – £396,140 to £493,000
3. Paralysis – Paraplegia (b) – Paralysis from the waist down – awards for paraplegia depend on the pain level, degree of independence and psychological impact – £267,340 to £346,890
4. Brain Damage – Very Severe (a) – Very little environment response or language function requiring full-time nursing care – £344,150 to £493,000
5. Brain Damage – Moderate (i) – Moderate to severe deficit in intellect, personality change, sensory impact and a significant epilepsy risk. – £183,190 to £267,340
6. Chest Injuries – The most serious injuries will be the removal of one lung and/or serious heart damage – £122,850 to £183,190.
7. Neck Injuries – Severe (i) – Injuries resulting in incomplete paraplegia or spastic quadriparesis where despite the permanent use of a collar, there is little neck movement. – In the region of £181,020
8. Neck Injuries – Moderate (b)(i) – Fractures or dislocations causing immediate and severe symptoms that may require spinal fusion – £30,500 to £46,970.
9. Knee Injuries – Severe (a)(i) – Disruption of the joint, gross ligament damage and considerable pain – £85,100 to £117,410
10. Severe leg Injuries – Severe (b)(ii) Very Serious – Injuries causing permanent mobility problems such as multiple fractures that take years to heal – £66,920 to £109,290.

What Else Could I Claim?

Serious injuries have substantial long term impacts on those who sustain them. Reduced mobility, capacity to work and the need for care can all have major effects on day to day life. These could also result in financial losses, which could be compensated under special damages in serious injury claims.

We have detailed a few potential costs you could be compensated for here:

• Loss of earnings.
• Care costs.
• Medical expenses such as prescriptions or counselling sessions.
• Accessibility installations in your home such as ramp, stairlifts or accessible bathroom modifications.
• Transport costs if you can no longer drive due to your injuries.

As special damages are awarded not just for immediate losses but also the long term impacts of your injuries, payments received under this head of loss are often substantially higher than those paid out under general damages.

However, we will need to provide evidence of these losses with documents such as bank statements, receipts and wage slips.

To find out if you could be eligible to claim compensation for the long-term impacts of a serious accident, contact our advisors.

What Is The Time Limit For Serious Injury Claims?

As with other personal injury cases, serious injury claims are subject to the 3-year limitation period within the Limitation Act 1980. This means you will have 3 years from the date of the incident to make your claim.

However there are scenarios where exceptions to this can apply. Read on to find out more about these circumstances, or contact our advisors today to inquire further about the personal injury claim time limit.

Can I Claim On Someone Else’s Behalf For A Serious Injury?

Yes, you can. In order to claim on behalf of another, such as a family member, you would need to be appointed that individual’s litigation friend. This means you are given the authority to make decisions about the case for someone who cannot make those decisions for themselves.

The situations where litigation friends can be appointed to begin the claims process sooner are:

• If the injured person was a child at the time of the accident, then the 3-year limit will only be counted from the day they turn 18. A litigation friend could be appointed while they were still a minor to begin the claim sooner.
• Someone who does not have the mental capacity to claim themselves could also have a litigation friend appointed to claim on their own behalf. Persons who lack the mental capacity to pursue their own claim have the time limit frozen altogether.

Our advisors can provide further guidance on making a personal injury claim on behalf of another. Get in touch today using the contact information given below.

What Is The Serious Injury Claim Process?

Serious injury claims are required to follow the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims. The Protocol sets out the steps that need to be followed before a claim can be heard in court. These steps aim to settle a dispute outside of the court due to both expense and the time such action will take.

The Pre-Action Protocol

1. Letter of Notification: this is a letter outlining your intention to make a claim against the defendant.
2. Rehabilitation: all parties involved should consider as soon as possible any rehabilitation and ongoing medical treatment required by the claimant.
3. Letter of Claim: the Letter of Claim sets out what grounds the claim is being made on, clearly setting out the facts of the case and the nature of injuries sustained, including any monetary losses.
4. Response: the defendant has 21 calendar days to respond to the Letter of Claim. Once the Letter of Claim has been acknowledged, the defendants have 3 months to investigate.
5. Disclosure: during the disclosure phase, any relevant documents that help to clarify points of dispute should be exchanged between the claimant and defendant.  Expert opinions should also be sought at this stage.
6. Alternative Dispute Resolution: Also known as ADR, this can take the form of a mediation, where a third party facilitates a resolution, an arbitration, where a third party decides the dispute, or a negotiation, where the representatives of both parties meet and attempted to reach an agreement.

ADR is the last stage before court proceedings. If no resolution can be reached, the claim will be heard in court.

A specialist solicitor from Advice will support you through every step of the claim, from communicating with the defendants’ representatives to helping you gather evidence. You will benefit from years of knowledge and experience in the personal injury sector.

Get your free eligibility assessment today by speaking to our advisory team.

Can I Make A Serious Injury Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis?

To begin your claim on a No Win No Fee basis, get in touch with our advisors for a free eligibility assessment. If eligible, they could connect you with one of our solicitors who may offer their services to you under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

This No Win No Fee contract provides claimants with some very desirable benefits such as:

• Not having to pay any service fees at the start of the claim.
• There will also be no service fees during the claims process itself and,
• Finally, should the claim be unsuccessful, you will not incur any service fees.

If you win the claim, you will receive personal injury compensation. A percentage of this will go to the solicitor’s success fee. However, because The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 caps these fees at a maximum of 25%, you will keep the majority of any compensation that is paid out.

To get your free eligibility assessment or to ask any questions about making serious injury claims, contact us today via:

• Phone on 0161 509 2856
• Contact us online by completing our callback form.
• Open the live chat window on your screen now.

Learn More About How To Make A Personal Injury Claim

You can browse some of our other personal injury claims guides here:

• Learn more about making a serious paralysis injury claim here.
• Read our guide to making a serious injury claim after a car accident and find out more about how compensation is calculated.
• Find out if you could be eligible to claim for severe PTSD with this guide.

We have also included these additional resources from external pages:

• Find out when to call 999 from the NHS.
• Learn more about the work of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) on their website.
• Following a serious injury, you will likely require time off work. Check the eligibility criteria to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) on the Government website.

Thank you for reading our serious injury claims guide. You can get a free eligibility assessment by talking to our advisors. Our team are available 24 hours a day via the contact information given above.