A serious injury can change your entire world in an instant, affecting not just your health but also your work, family life, and future. In this kind of case, where someone else was responsible for the injuries you suffered, you may be able to claim enough compensation, ongoing care costs, medical treatment, and all that’s needed to make your life as normal as possible for however long it takes you to recover, or for as long as you live if you never fully get better. Our FAQs address the most frequently asked questions clients have when considering a serious injury claim.
Serious or catastrophic injuries occur when the person involved in an accident that was not their fault suffers significant and life-changing personal injury. The nature of the injury defines the term serious injury claims, not the type of accident they were involved in.
The following are some of the types of serious injury claims we handle for clients:
- Fractures and Broken Bone Claims
- Amputation Claims
- Head or Brain Injury Claims (including traumatic brain injury claims and acquired brain injury claims)
- Eye Damage Claims
- Spinal Injury Claims
- Fatal Accident claims
- Broken bone Claims
- Burn Injury Claims
- Nerve Injury Claims
- Spinal Injury claims
Any accident that leads to bodily injury may result in serious injuries.
- Road traffic accidents: particularly when vulnerable road users are involved, i.e., pedestrian accidents, cycling accidents, motorcycle accidents.
- Accidents at work: faulty machinery accidents, falls from height, falling objects, forklift truck accidents, to name but a few types of workplace accidents that may cause serious injury.
- Accidents in Public Places: trips, slips and falls, accidents in playgrounds, bouncy castles and fairground ride accidents, accidents on faulty pavements, accidents on private land and accidents in shopping malls; all are types of accidents that may result in catastrophic accidents.
- Medical negligence – poor or inadequate medical treatment can cause the patient severe injury.
A severe injury can occur even when the accident occurred in circumstances that seem innocuous.
For example, when someone trips on a faulty pavement, they fall and sustain a sprained ankle or cuts and bruises.
However, the same type of accident may equally result in the victim’s head hitting the floor, causing them to suffer severe brain injury.
The difference is often a matter of chance, i.e., being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The responsible party can’t argue that the type of accident he caused shouldn’t have resulted in serious injury. Provided you can prove the full extent of the injury damages you claim were directly caused by the accident, you can expect to recover compensation in full.
When a new client with serious injuries asks Mooneerams Solicitors whether we will visit them to take their instructions, we will always agree. We visit them at, in a hospital or wherever is most suitable for them.
We act for clients all over Wales and England and travel all over the country to see clients who have suffered serious injuries.
An expert serious injury solicitor will visit you. As well as taking detailed instructions from you, the solicitor will explain what further information we need from you or your family to obtain the maximum injury compensation possible for you.
- Loss of earnings: a claim for the earnings you lose up to the settlement date of your claim.
- Personal injury compensation: Damages (compensation) for the pain and suffering your injury has caused.
- Loss of future earnings: There may be an ongoing claim for loss of earnings beyond the date of settlement of your claim.
- Medical Expenses: These can become significant if you’ve suffered catastrophic injuries. We will seek to get interim payments to cover the medical treatment you have paid for.
- Travel Expenses: The nature of your injuries might mean that you have to travel to see medical consultants as part of the ongoing process of both your recovery and your claim. Some cases require multiple consultants.
- Rehabilitation Costs: In most cases involving serious injury, your solicitor will draw up a rehabilitation program, working in conjunction with an experienced rehabilitation case manager as early in the case as possible.
- Future Rehabilitation costs: As time passes, the programme may need to be added to as further needs become apparent. These extra requirements can be identified and cost so the necessary funding can be added to your claim for damages.
Rehabilitation may include physiotherapy, occupational therapists, counsellors, or specialised medical services particular to your situation.
- Cost of care: You may require the services of a care assistant.
- Costs of adaptations to your home: If your injuries prevent you from, for example, going upstairs to the bathrooms or bedroom or from accessing other parts of your home, your home may need to be adapted accordingly.
- Costs of medical equipment: Your injuries may require special medical equipment to be installed at home.
- Retraining costs for a new career: Mooneerams will ensure you obtain the right training if you have to change your career. This might be necessary if you can no longer do the job you had before the accident.
- Cost of adapting your motor vehicle: Your transport requirements may change, and your motor vehicle needs adjusting, or a more suitable replacement needs to be purchased.
Mooneerams will help you to regain as much self‐sufficiency as possible. As part of your serious injury compensation claim, we’ll also look to recover all the funds required to achieve this aim.
The amount of compensation you receive at the end of your claim will depend on the type and severity of injury suffered.
Serious injury claims take a long time to settle or to get to court. It may be several years before your claim is concluded – sometimes longer.
Medical reports must be obtained at suitable intervals over a long period. Several different types of medical experts may be required to provide evidence, especially if you sustained multiple injuries in the accident.
When the experts are satisfied that they have enough evidence to give an opinion on how long your recovery will take, only then is your case getting close to settlement.
In a serious injury compensation claim, it’s also unlikely that your only claim will be for the injury you suffered. You will probably have claims for several other types of compensation, including:
- Loss of past and future earnings
- Medical and therapy treatment fees
- Cost of medical aids
- Adapting or buying a new vehicle.
- Adapting your house to accommodate a long-term disability caused by the accident
- Medical care and rehabilitation costs
The time limit for starting a serious injury claim is no different from any other personal injury claim; in most cases, it’s three years from the accident date. ‘Start’ (or ‘bring’) a claim means you must file the
There are exceptions to the rule concerning children under 18 who suffer a catastrophic injury in an accident and those with a mental disability.
Both groups have longer within which to start a claim. Still, we advise any injured victim of an accident to seek legal advice from a personal injury law firm if they have any concerns about time limits for bringing a claim.
We strongly advise any victims of medical negligence to seek advice from a clinical negligence solicitor about the time limit that applies to their bringing a clinical negligence claim.
In most circumstances, we can fund your serious injury claim on a No Win No Fee basis by offering you the benefit of a No Win, No Fee arrangement, meaning that if you don’t win your case you’ll have no legal costs to pay. You can find out more about how we get paid when you win your case on our No Win No Fee page.
Catastrophic injury claims can take a long time to settle or reach their conclusion by going to court; several years or more may elapse before you get your compensation.
As experienced serious injury solicitors, Mooneerams will, at the earliest opportunity, help you get a significant interim payment from the insurers of the person or people responsible for the accident.
Interim payments are ‘payments on account’ of final damages, paid by the insurer so that you don’t suffer financial hardship. If necessary, we’ll continue at the appropriate time to get further interim payments from the insurers. In this way, we can help ease your financial concerns while waiting for the total compensation payout at the end of the claim.
Call Mooneerams now on 029 2199 1927 for a no-obligation discussion about claiming serious injuries either for yourself or a family member (who may not be able to call us themselves).
You can also contact us by leaving your details in the box on the right-hand side of this page and then pressing the ‘Start you Claim ‘button; you won’t commit yourself to anything by doing so.
Personal injury Claimants are entitled to compensation to cover the cost of their future care needs. Predicting the cost of an individual’s future care can be a challenge, but getting it right is crucial to ensure the funds don’t run out before they fully recover or during their lifetime. The exercise often needs the involvement of a care expert. A care expert will assess the Claimant’s needs and prepare a report to help the parties, and the Court calculate the appropriate compensation award.
