Spinal injury Compensation Claims Solicitors

If you or your loved-one suffers what insurers refer to as a 'catastrophic injury' life is likely to become difficult. Spinal injuries, brain injuries, severe burns or amputations change your life and that of your family forever.

24-hour care may become a necessity. Special equipment may be required and your home may need to be adapted. Months of rehabilitation may follow the accident, which has led to your serious injury. Re-training may become necessary. For some people, their serious injury will mean the end of their working lives.

You will need financial support to rebuild your life.

These types of cases can be very complex and you should always speak to a lawyer before commencing a compensation claim.

Our primary objective is always to secure the maximum compensation for our clients in the shortest possible time and we have earned a reputation for taking on cases and winning where little prospect of success seemed the situation.

It is every lawyer's job to provide the best possible legal advice to his or her client. This is where experience really counts. There may come a time when you will need your lawyer to advise as to whether you should settle or continue to fight for a higher award. This is where it pays to have sound advice.

If you would like to discuss what kind of service we can offer you or someone you know please contact us. You will be under no obligation to instruct us and our initial advice is free.

You may be able to seek compensation in a range of circumstances.

Legal action must be commenced within three years of the date you first knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that you have suffered an injury caused through someone else's fault. Different rules apply to children and to people who are incapable of handling their own affairs.

You should visit a specialist catastrophic injury solicitor as soon as possible since there is a vast amount of work to be done before bringing a compensation claim.

We will need to obtain full details of the accident and how it occurred. Supporting witness evidence and documentation will need to be obtained and considered. It is often the case that we will want very early medical assessments in order to asses what specialist medical assistance may be required and what rehabilitative support may be available. In some cases it is necessary to apply for a interim payment to cover the cost of these. Specialist care may be required and often the cost of this can be covered by an interim payment either made voluntarily by the insurer or by Court order.

Negligence has to be proved irrespective of the level of injury caused. However, often in serious injury cases, because the potential level of damages is going to be very high, insurance companies will do everything they can to deny liability or to argue that the injured person contributed to the accident and that damages should therefore be reduced.

As well as proving negligence, it is necessary to prove that the injuries and the disabilities arising from the accident were a consequence of that negligence.

In catastrophic injury cases, the injuries are severe and it may be some time to establish the full extent of disability. There are likely to be a number of injuries ranging from fractures, head injury and spinal cord damage. We will instruct specialist medical experts to assess these. In addition there may be and early need for specialist rehabilitation, domestic and medical care, disability aids and support for family carers.

The cost of all this can be claimed provided it can be shown to be reasonably necessary and of benefit to the quality of life of the inured person.

When someone is injured in an accident they are entitled to compensation for their injuries and financial losses provided it can be shown that someone else was at fault and that their negligence caused the injuries. In some cases this is straightforward. Often this is not the case and evidence has to be obtained to prove the negligence.

This can involve obtaining witness evidence, accident documents, and in some cases the early intervention of an expert engineer or other appropriate expert is required.

Interim payments can be applied for to cover this, although this can be more difficult if there is a significant dispute as to who was to blame.

In a successful case compensation will consist of damages for pain and suffering, loss of earnings to date, future loss of earnings, the cost of care provided by family members, family members' reasonable expenses visiting the injured person, the cost of care, past and future, the cost of specialist rehabilitation, the cost of house adaptations, disability equipment, the cost of a case manager.

All these items in severe cases are necessary to restore a reasonable quality of life to the injured person and can add up to a significant sum of compensation. Compensation in these cases is not some sort of windfall or lottery win but the sum that is necessary to enable the injured person to have a reasonable quality of life.

Compensation can be paid in a number of ways; either a lump sum, or a combination of lump sum and periodic payments. In some cases variable periodic payments. We will advise you on the various options at the appropriate time.