What is a serious injury?

Serious injury – also known as catastrophic injury – is a term used to describe any injury which has long-term effects; that is, an injury which causes permanent or life-changing disabilities. Due to the nature of these injuries, they often have a devastating and traumatic impact on the survivor and their families.

Injuries that are classed as ‘serious’ include head and brain injuries, loss of limbs, complex multiple injuries (involving several serious aspects), injuries to the eye causing significant sight loss or blindness, spinal cord injuries, chronic pain, burns, or crushing injuries.

The impact of such injuries is often wide-ranging; it is common for people to require extensive support, care and rehabilitation, and many people worry about the potential impact on their future finances if they are unable to return to work.

No amount of compensation can change what has happened or make up for the pain and suffering after serious injury. However, it can help to ease financial pressure, and provide the resources for future loss of earnings, ongoing medical treatment, rehabilitation, and adaptations needed to enable a survivor to live their life to the fullest.

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What serious injury claims can we support you with?

At Slater and Gordon, we understand just how much life can change after a serious injury, and we work hard to make the claims process as easy as possible to ensure our clients get the best outcome. With a focus on securing interim payments (made before a claim is settled to help fund necessary costs along the way) and access to rehabilitation to improve quality of life, our specialist solicitors have many years of experience in a range of serious injury claims including:

• Amputations and limb damage: losing a limb, or losing the use of a limb, dramatically alters a person’s ability to work and enjoy their lives as they did before their injury, as mobility is restricted and activities that have previously been enjoyed become challenging.
• Burns, scars and lacerations: these types of injuries have the potential to severely impact your life and finances in the long-term due to the recovery and rehabilitation time they require.
• Chronic pain: living with chronic pain is often incredibly distressing, with one of the most difficult aspects being that there may be no outward sign of the pain people experience.
• Eye injuries: these injuries can lead to significant sight loss or complete blindness, which can present enormous challenges and requires life-changing adaptations.
• Fatal incidents: losing a loved one due to someone else’s negligence is devastating, and while financial security is often the last thing on anyone’s mind, such a loss can leave families in difficult financial situations
• Head and brain injuries: the effects of head and brain injuries can be far-reaching and, in many situations, life changing. While it is possible to make a full recovery from such injuries, many will require specialist care for the rest of their lives, as well as ongoing therapies and medical treatment.
• Spinal cord injuries: these injuries can range in severity from limited mobility through to paralysis. Rehabilitation is critical to outcomes after spinal cord injury and in achieving as much independence as possible.

What is considered as part of a serious injury compensation claim?

Making a serious injury claim isn’t likely to the be the first thing on your mind after suffering an injury, however it can be an important step in the recovery process for many different reasons, including securing funds for rehabilitation and treatment. In addition to the compensation for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by the injury we also ensure that all financial losses caused by the injury are expertly calculated and projected into the future. Serious injury compensation can be sought for:

• A loss of earnings if you’re unable to continue working, including potential losses to your pension
• Costs associated with your rehabilitation and ongoing medical treatment
• Costs associated with adaptations you may need to make to your home, or if you need to move house due to your injuries
• The cost of any professional care you may have had or will need to receive in future, even if a family member or friend provides this
• Any equipment or aids to support you in living your life and maximising independence, such as mobility devices or prosthetics

Could I receive financial support before my serious injury claim has settled?

At Slater and Gordon, we’re committed to supporting our clients through every stage of recovery. We work tirelessly to ensure all our clients have access to high-quality rehabilitation and support, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and a positive prognosis, and a better quality of life.

One of the many ways in which we do this is by pursuing interim payments to provide early access to the treatment and rehabilitation needed to maximise recovery potential. We work closely with a network of trusted providers to achieve this and collaborate with the other party’s insurers to ensure your claim can progress as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In a recent traumatic brain injury case, our Principal Lawyer Crystal Eaton was able to quickly secure a substantial early interim payment to help with the costs and travel expenses when our client needed to receive care through being admitted to a highly specialised neurobehavioural rehabilitation centre. We’ve also helped:

• A client who suffered a lower leg amputation after a catastrophic injury at work receive a seven-figure settlement, including substantial interim payments to provide home adjustments, a prosthetic limb, and support in returning to employment
• Steven Gilmore, a former scaffolder, receive £60,000 in interim payments while his case progresses after suffering severe injuries following an accident in which he was electrocuted at work

How to make a serious injury claim

To start a serious injury claim, you should contact a member of our serious injury team to discuss the specifics of your case. We will take a full account from you of what has happened and the circumstances surrounding your accident and will then be able to advise you of your legal rights and guide you through the claims process in more detail.

The next step of the process will be to collect evidence of the accident that caused your injury, with the aim of establishing liability (that is, that someone else’s negligence resulted in your injury). Types of evidence could include photographs of the scene, witness statements, and medical reports.

If the evidence provided suggests that your accident was a result of someone else’s negligence and we can prove that they are liable, we will be able to support you in your case. The majority of serious injury cases we pursue are funded by a No Win No Fee agreement, which means there are no upfront costs and no financial risk on your part.

Our team will then need to provide medical evidence of the injury you have suffered, including a final prognosis of your condition. In serious injury cases, this will comprise a number of detailed medical examinations to ensure the evidence is there to progress a successful claim, and all of your needs are fully and comprehensively assessed, so they can be factored into the total of the settlement.

Why choose Slater and Gordon’s serious injury solicitors

Dealing with serious injuries can be a daunting and difficult process, which is why it is crucial that you have the support of trusted and experienced serious injury solicitors on hand.

At Slater and Gordon, we go beyond the provision of legal expertise, working tirelessly to provide a holistic approach to your recovery and ensuring you get the best possible rehabilitation, interim payments, compensation and further care. We strive to be more than just lawyers, building a trusted and experienced support network across the field of rehabilitation, so we can appoint the right experts in each individual case and the unique circumstances behind it, to maximise the recovery potential for every client.

We’re able to do this because of the strong expertise of our team, including our in-house rehabilitation coordinator and our specialist serious injury solicitors, who have many years of experience and have gained millions of pounds in compensation for people who have experienced a serious injury.

Many of our serious injury solicitors are experts within their field; many hold APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) accreditations and have been continuously ranked in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500. Our Head of Serious Injury for the South, Tracey Benson, has seen her dedication to clients acknowledged through many testimonials in both of these prestigious publications, and our Head of Serious Injury for the North, Matthew Tomlinson, has also been ranked as a Band 1 leader in the field of personal injury by Chambers and Partners.

We’re committed to helping those suffering from serious injuries, and as part of this commitment, we work with a number of charities and partners to help support long-term recovery, including (but not limited to) Aftermath, Aftermatters, BABICM, Backup, Brake, Cauda Equina Champions Charity, Headway, Limbless Association, RoadPeace, SIA and more.