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available damages

by admin — last modified 28-08-2006 12:11

Page 2 of 7.

Next: routes to compensation Previous: personal injury - about your claim

Getting initial advice

You should always get advice before:

contacting the person or organisation you think caused the injury (though you should tell your employer at once if you were injured at work)
replying to any letters or offers to settle your claim.

Injurywatch.co.uk's free, confidential, no obligation claim support legal team can provide assistance.

Call 0800 066 99 07 and get our personal injury team working for you straight away. The call is free, the advice is free and nothing will ever be deducted from your compensation.

Types of compensation

If you have sustained a personal injury you may be entitled to claim three types of compensation:

general damages
special damages
future damages

General Damages

General damages are paid as compensation for losses that cannot be quantified, for example a payment for pain and suffering. If your case gets to court, the court will decide on the amount to be paid. The amount set is likely to be similar to that awarded in similar previous cases and the courts are likely to refer to guidelines produced by the Judicial Studies Board (see the Guidelines on damages table, below).

But general damages also include compensation for what the courts term loss of amenity. This encompasses all the activities of life which a claimant is prevented from doing, or which is more difficult as a result of the injury. For example a keen equestrian might have to give up the sport due to a back injury sustained in a road traffic accident. The loss of amenity component of damages may very widely from case to case.

Injury	Lower end of scale (£)	Higher end of scale (£)
Quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs)	£160,000	£200.000
Severe brain damage	£140,000	£200,000
Paraplegia (paralysis of lower limbs)	£110,000	£140,000
Moderate brain damage	£75,000	£110,000
Total deafness	£45,000	£55,000
Severe post-traumatic stress	£30,000	£50,000
Severe facial scarring - female	£24,000	£48,000
Severe loss of function in wrist	£24,000	£30,000
Moderate whiplash to neck	£7,000	£12,500
Simple fracture of the forearm	£3.250	£9,500

general damages likely to be awarded (src: Judicial Studies Board guidelines)

Special damages

Special damages are paid as compensation for actual financial loss caused by the accident up to the date of the hearing. These can include:

expenses which would not have been incurred had the accident not taken place;
the cost of items damaged in an accident;
loss of earnings (calculated net of tax and National Insurance), including overtime, bonuses and loss of promotion prospects (known as damages for "lost chance");
cost of care (amount paid to carers but also including a notional sum for care provided free-of-charge by a friend or relative - although this is usually awarded at a lower figure than that which can be claimed for "commercial" care);
cost of accommodation (for example in adapting a house for a disability);
cost of special aids and equipment;
travel costs (including those of relatives visiting the claimant in hospital);
household costs (such as increased heating used as a result of the claimant being confined to the house);
medical costs (including those for private treatment).

Future damages

Future damages will include the same elements that comprise special damages, but reflect the losses that will arise in the future. Additional categories might also be included, including loss of pension or the cost of professional advice to manage any damages awarded. They are usually the most complex to establish and are often the largest element of a damages award, especially if the injury is serious and has an ongoing effect.

Future damages are usually calculated on a complex formula that involves likely annual future costs resulting from the injury multiplied by a figure based on life expectancy. This "multiplier" figure is usually reached by reference to a complex set of tables which evaluate the worth of interest likely to be received on the value of a lump sum award and is beyond the scope of this article.

This figure If a court decides you were partly to blame for the accident or the degree of injury you received (for example if you were not wearing a seatbelt) it may reduce the amount of damages awarded.

Injurywatch's free, confidential, no obligation claim support legal helpdesk can provide assistance.

Provisional damages

If there is a possibility that the claimant's condition may deteriorate in future or the injury may lead the development of further disease, the court may award 'provisional damages' on the basis of the claimant's present condition, but give leave to apply to the court for further damages should a deterioration occur. In such cases, the judge will usually specify the diseases or deterioration concerned and the period of time within which a further application can be made.

If the accident results in death:

If the negligence results in death a claim may be brought for funeral and other associated expenses.

Dependency damages may be awarded to compensate for the loss suffered by dependents of the deceased. Dependency damages compensate relatives who are judged to have suffered financially as a result of the death. 'Dependants' can include a spouse, former spouse, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cohabitants.

A fixed sum (currently £10,000) may be awarded as bereavement damages to a surviving spouse or parent.

Interest on damages

Interest on general damages will normally be awarded at the rate of 2% per year from when proceedings were served. Interest on other items will be granted at the rate specified by the court from the time that the loss was incurred.

Claiming damages - who will pay

There is usually no problem in recovering damages awarded as part of a personal injury claim as the defendant will usually be insured against your claim.

in a road traffic accident the defendant's motor insurance policy will cover the claim;
if the defendant was injured at work the defendant's employer liability insurance will cover the claim
if the accident takes place in a commercial premises, the premises owner's public liability insurance should cover the claim.

However if you are injured, say, in a private house or at a small event, it is possible that there is no insurance policy in place or the policy is insufficient to cover the damages the court may award you. In such cases you may be awarded damages but the uninsured liability will lie with the householder or event organiser and much will depend on whether you have the means to pay.

One of the first checks your solicitor will make on your behalf when dealing with a claim is whether appropriate insurance cover is in place and whether it will be sufficient to meet any judgement.

Contact Injurywatch.co.uk's free, confidential, no obligation claim support legal service for further assistance.

Uninsured motorists and "hit-and-run" - special provisions

If you were injured in a road accident and your injury was at least partly because of a driver’s negligent driving, you can claim compensation from their insurer. You can still claim compensation even if the other driver was not insured or if you think they don’t have enough money to pay you compensation. The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) (http://www.mib.org.uk) may pay you compensation if the other driver:

didn’t have insurance; or
cannot be found (for example, if you were injured in a hit-and-run accident).

More details on the MIB scheme can be found in the Compensation for criminal injury section.

Contact Injurywatch.co.uk's free, confidential, no obligation claim support legal service for further assistance.

Criminal injury - special provisions

Please also see the section Compensation for criminal injury if your injury resulted from you being the victim of a criminal act.

It's a tough existence for crash test dummies but for human beings injured in car accidents, a damages award can soften the blow

Injurywatch home page

How injuries occur:

Accidents at work
Clinical injury (medical and dental)
Criminal injury
Defective products
Holiday injuries and injuries abroad
Industrial disease
Military injury
Public transport injuries
Road traffic accidents
Injuries in school
Injuries in the street
Sports injury

Types of injury:

head injuries
repetitive strain injury
spinal injury
whiplash

additional information:

Discuss your claim on our bulletin boards!

Claimable expenses
Compensation tables
Welfare benefits and government assistance

Proving the essential ingredients of 'negligence':

Before a successful case can be brought, four essential steps must be taken to prove negligence:

Identify a defendent: the person or organisation responsible for your accident.
Establish that the defendant is owed a duty of care.
The law requires that people act with reasonable car towards each other. A duty of care need not imply a relationship. For example a motorist owes a duty of care to other road users and pedestrians.
Prove that the defendant breached that duty of care.
Just because an injury was incurred does not necessarily imply responsibility: the injured person must have been exposed to a forseeable risk which could reasonably have been avoided.
Prove that the injuries and loss occurred as a result of the breach of that duty of care.

It is not only important to prove negligence. The defendant must also have the ability to pay. In many instances this will be covered by insurance (employers' liability insurance, motor insurance, public liability insurance) but if the defendant is an individual without insurance or means it may be necessaary to pursue claims through other routes. For example most criminal injury cases are compensated by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority because most perpetrators don't have the ability to pay.

Breach of statutory duty and vicarious responsibility

Some statutory regulations impose responsibilities on employers to safeguard the health and safety of their employees (see injuries at work pages). However injuries incurred at work are not necessarily the fault of the employer if they are caused by another employee. If a guard was wrongly fitted to machinery by another employee and an accident resulted in an injury, the court would be likely to rule that the employer had a vicarious responsibility and would be liable. However if an injury were to result from (say) horseplay then the employer might not be vicariously liable for a claim. An employer might only be deemed to be vicariously liable for injuries resulting from the action of another employee if that employee was acting in the course of their employment.

See injuries at work for more detailed information.

Contributory negligence

A court may rule that a defendant was responsible for a claim but that the defendant contributed to either the cause or the extent of the resultant injuries. In such cases the court will decide the extent the claimant's actions contributed to the accident or the extent of the injuries.

Example

An road traffic accident might be deemed to be the fault of the defendant but the claimant's injuries were partially caused by their not wearing a seatbelt.

Dazed and confused? Contact Injurywatch.co.uk's case claim support team for discreet, no obligation, jargon-free advice!