Can I Claim Compensation for Chronic Back Pain After an Accident?

You can take out a chronic back pain compensation claim after an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence.

Symptoms of back injury range widely. Many present themselves as no more than mildly uncomfortable.

However, at the other end of the scale, long-term debilitating back injuries, with symptoms of chronic pain and loss of movement, are very serious injuries. Claiming compensation for chronic back pain after an accident requires expert legal help from an experienced back injury solicitor.

As personal injury solicitors acting for claimants across Wales, here at Mooneerams, we regularly advise people from Cardiff and South Wales who are suffering from chronic back pain after road traffic accidents, workplace accidents and serious falls.

If you’d like to talk with us about a possible back injury compensation claim, call Mooneerams on 029 2199 1927.

So, where does the line between minor back injuries and chronic, life-changing back injuries get drawn?

If we look at what counts as a back injury, it’ll soon become apparent how much of a lottery it is when you suffer a back injury; how the difference between suffering a muscle sprain and a spinal cord injury is often a hair’s breadth.

What are the various types of back injuries that are caused by accidents?

• Soft tissue damage (lower back)
• Back strain injury to muscles or tendons
• Back sprain injury to ligaments
• Nerve damage injury
• Damages (or bruised) coccyx
• Slipped discs
• Herniated discs
• Fractured vertebrae
• Brachial plexus injury
• Spinal cord injuries
• Paralysis

What is classed as a serious back injury claim?

In personal injury law, there is no strict definition of what constitutes a ‘serious injury claim.’ That’s because how an injury affects its victims depends, to some extent, on the individual affected.

As a general rule, if a back injury is likely to have a life-changing effect on its victim, it will be classed as a serious injury.

How long does back pain have to last to be classed as chronic?

According to the NHS, if your back pain lasts for longer than three months, it will be classed as ‘chronic’.

Sufferers of chronic back pain are usually uncomfortable on a daily basis, and can experience:

• Low mood.
• Depression.
• Trouble sleeping.
• Fatigue.
• Impaired movement.
• Difficulty with carrying out everyday tasks.
• Overwhelm.

In short, chronic back pain can significantly reduce a sufferer’s quality of life. For some, it means leaving their jobs, being unable to socialise, and struggling to manage their responsibilities at home.

How can an accident cause chronic back pain?

Many types of accidents can result in the victim suffering from chronic back pain. For example:

• The sudden and intense impact of a road traffic accident can cause bone fractures, muscle strains, and nerve compression, all of which can lead to chronic back pain that persists long after the accident.
• Work-related accidents, such as falls, can cause immediate injuries that morph into chronic back pain over time. Other work-related tasks that can cause chronic back pain include lifting heavy objects, manual handling, and repetitive strain in physically demanding roles. The person suffering an injury of this type may not notice a specific trigger event.
• Sports injuries, for example, those caused by excessive physical impact during contact sports, or gym injuries, can cause ongoing back issues.
• Slip, trip and fall accidents usually result in a fall to the ground unexpectedly. This often means there is no time for the accident victim to try to mitigate their fall. If they fall directly onto their back or twist as they fall, serious back injuries may ensue.
• Falls from height accidents occur when someone falls from a height, usually at work. Falls from a ladder, scaffolding or whilst unloading the back of a lorry, for example, can all lead to serious injury to the back.
• Repetitive strain injuries are often caused by doing repetitive work, often whilst maintaining a poor posture. The combination sometimes leads to back injuries, and because the strain has built up over time, that can lead to chronic back injury.

When can you claim for chronic back pain compensation after an accident?

1. As with all accident-related injuries, you can only make a personal injury claim for chronic back pain if the accident was caused by someone else’s negligence, i.e., it was their fault.
2. The injury must have been sustained within the last three years.

What if the person who caused the accident denies liability?

Sometimes, the other side admits responsibility for the accident early on, and the personal injury proceedings focus on how much compensation the claimant is entitled to. Other times, though, they or their insurers deny liability, and the claimant must gather evidence to prove their case.

The types of evidence we look to gather on your behalf include:

1. Witness statements
2. Medical records
3. Dashcam footage
4. Accident reconstruction reports

Don’t worry if not all of this evidence is available to you in your claim. Every case is different, and other types of evidence may be available depending on the nature of the accident. An experienced serious injury solicitor will put your mind at rest and will ensure that whatever evidence is available, it will be obtained and used to support your serious injury claim.

Can you make a personal injury claim for less severe chronic back pain?

As already explained, chronic back pain borne out of a non-fault accident can sometimes give rise to a serious injury compensation claim.

Importantly, though, your entitlement to compensation is not dependent on the seriousness of your injury.

There is no threshold in English law that decides whether an accident victim is entitled to compensation. Instead, it bases personal injury compensation on several key factors:

1. The severity of the injury
2. The injury’s impact on the sufferer’s physical health
3. The mental health aspects of the injury
4. How the injury affects the injured victim’s ability to live a normal life

If you are suffering from chronic back pain of any intensity caused by an accident for which someone else was to blame, you may be entitled to compensation.

How much compensation can you get for chronic back pain?

As with all serious injury claims, there is no set figure for compensation for chronic back pain. Every claim is different in terms of the severity of injury, as is the effect each injury has on each individual. For severe back injuries, the Judicial College Guidelines 17^th Edition set out guideline figures ONLY for damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA), ranging from £47,320 to £196,450.

Do I need to obtain scans or other imaging before starting a claim?

Both scans and imaging can support a claim, but they’re not crucial, and certainly not at the outset. Your medical notes will have recorded your post-accident visits to hospitals and your GP. You will also be referred to an expert medical professional for the purpose of writing up a detailed medical report on the injuries you sustained and your prognosis.

Can I claim if my back pain developed over time?

Yes, you can. Indeed, this is often the situation with work-related repetitive injury cases, when you have an injury caused by poor ergonomics at work, if a pre-existing injury has been made worse and sometimes when there has been a missed opportunity to diagnose your back injury by medical professionals.

What if my employers say they are not to blame for the accident?

It’s quite common for employers to deny liability, especially at the start. Their attitude often changes as the claim proceeds. If not, your solicitors will take the necessary preparations to be able to argue persuasively that they were to blame and to prove it.

How do I start a serious back injury claim?

To find out more, get in touch with us here at Mooneerams personal injury solicitors. We are experienced serious injury solicitors.

1. We are the only purely claimant solicitors in Wales and have been for twenty-four years.
2. We only handle personal injury claims. We don’t do any other type of legal work.
3. As a result, we focus all our energy on ensuring we get the best results possible for our clients.
4. Our clients’ reviews left on the ReviewSolicitors website confirm that we have a great reputation
5. During an obligation-free phone call, we’ll listen to you, find out what has happened and how it happened, and then let you know if we think you have reasonable prospects of success should you decide to bring a back injury compensation claim against the person or organisation responsible for the accident that caused your injury.

After that, if you decide to proceed with a back injury claim, we will be happy to act on your behalf. We fund most of our clients’ personal injury claims on a No Win No Fee basis, enabling us to pursue your claim without you having to pay our fees upfront or worrying about what will happen if your claim doesn’t succeed.

If your claim isn’t successful, you’ll usually have nothing to pay.

If your claim is successful, you’ll pay us a fee from the compensation you receive, on the basis agreed when you signed the No Win No Fee Agreement. Our fee will not exceed 25% of the compensation you receive.

Call Mooneerams now on 029 2199 1927 and speak with a member of our team. If you prefer, fill in your details in the form on the right of this page. Send your details back to us, and we’ll get in touch with you promptly.