Where a person suffers a spinal cord injury it will have a lifelong impact. As specialist solicitors our role is to try to secure as much compensation as might be possible to recover commensurate with what the law will recognise as compensable loss.
Take two people affected by the same level of spinal cord injury but where one has a claim, and the other does not. With an expert and experienced solicitor, the former should receive enough money because of a successful compensation claim to make a significant difference to their quality of life and independence post injury. The latter – with the same difficulties and issues as the former - is likely to be left with what often modest savings, State Benefits and charity can combine to provide. People may have substantial savings, State Benefits and charitable support may prove to be hugely helpful but ordinarily the difference compensation can make will be substantial.
The solicitor needs to first establish liability – that is that compensation should be paid by the person who caused the injury. That is not always straight forward. More claims arise from clinical negligence sometimes secondary to an initial fall or misdiagnosis of something that causes damage to the spinal cord. Those cases are much more complex than the injury occasioned in say a road traffic collision where it is often easier to identify who caused the injury.
Having established liability, the question of what amount of compensation should be paid can be engaged with. It is no less of a challenge. Experienced solicitors and Judges will need the assistance of experts in a range of medical and non-medical disciplines to piece together what amount of compensation it might be appropriate for the liable Defendant to be ordered to pay the injured Claimant.
The award of compensation is often thought of as being a lump sum amount. In a spinal cord injury case it may be part lump sum and part periodic payment order where for example there will be lifelong care needs to meet. It might even be that the award is paid on a provisional basis meaning that in the event the impact of the Defendant’s negligence is such as to make the Claimant’s situation deteriorate later (perhaps because of syringomyelia) the Claimant would be able to re-open the case and seek the further compensation that in some circumstances might then be needed.
The lump sum amount of compensation is also a sum that is likely to have been calculated to ensure the Claimant is not over compensated. The Claimant who received the full value of their claim today may well through investment and inflation get to a point in the future where they may be said to have been over compensated where the lump sum has appreciated in value. Hence the law works to adjust the sum the Claimant receives taking those factors in to account. It will almost always be the case that the Claimant will be advised of a need to invest what might be substantial sums of compensation to ensure the sum is protected enough (and grows enough) to meet the anticipated future needs the sum is required to meet.
The compensation sum to be paid will take in to account the pain and suffering endured by the Claimant who has suffered the injury. But the worst combination of injuries it is possible to envisage would still only attract a relatively modest sum in respect of general damages. Substantial awards tend to be made of substantial past losses (expenditure incurred or income lost to the date the award is made) and usually very significant sums in respect of ongoing and future (often lifelong losses). The younger the Claimant and the longer the life expectancy the greater the future loss lump sum or lump sum equivalent where some of those losses are paid on a periodical payments order basis.
The experienced solicitor will look to all aspects of what the loss occasioned by the injury might be. That is often likely to include but is not limited to –
- the lifelong need for regular medical assessment and review (and on the basis that it may not always be possible to rely on the NHS as it presently stands).
- the need for psychological support (and often extending to close family) because of the injury and its impact.
- sums needed to participate in medical trials where those might be appropriate and available now and in future.
- lifelong care and case management needs that may increase with age.
- loss of earnings and pension losses occasioned by not being able to work at all or for as long or on the same basis as was envisaged pre-injury.
- lifelong therapy needs including occupational therapy (covering mobility equipment, vehicles, beds, bathrooms, holidays etc) and physiotherapy which may change over time including, where appropriate, access to hydrotherapy and, for example, FES equipment.
- lifelong equipment and assistive technology needs that again may change over time and not least where the pace of change is significant and the period over which the needs will persist is likely to be long.
- and of course, lifelong accommodation needs ranging from adapting existing accommodation to acquiring a new property or even acquiring a plot of land to build suitable accommodation where that might be appropriate; and assessing annual running and maintenance costs, carer accommodation, storage of equipment garaging of vehicles etc.
There are all manner of other losses that it may be necessary to claim compensation for. Fertility treatment; sexual counselling and support; vocational rehabilitation (including further education and careers help); household maintenance and gardening costs; specialist nursing, dental and chiropody costs and similar.
The experienced spinal cord injuries solicitor comes in to their own particularly when liability has been established. The objective is to make an accurate assessment of the lifelong likely consequences of the injury. The solicitor must secure the expert witness and other evidence needed to establish the full extent of what the Claimant’s loss is for the Trial Judge to be able to make a judgment on what amount of compensation should be paid.
Alas no amount of money will ever be enough, but every penny of compensation can help make a difference to the person who suffers spinal cord injury.
To read more about Brethertons Spinal Cord Injuries Team - https://www.brethertons.co.uk/site/services/life-changing-injury-solicitors/spinal-injury-solicitors/
To follow us on Twitter - @neurolawyer
To contact us – telephone 01788 557617, or email jonrees@brethertons.co.uk or sianbuxton@brethertons.co.uk or allisonfitchett@brethertons.co.uk.
Comments