No two cases are alike, and even if you are injured in the exact same accident or situation, your lifestyle, age, job and even personal life enjoyments can have a difference on what you receive in the long run.
Considerations of spinal cord injury claims
There are numerous considerations when making a spinal cord injury claim, and in this article, we cover some you should think about.
Personal situations
For one of our previous clients, part of the assessment of their damages involved assessing how her career would have progressed had she not been injured, and we obtained witness evidence from her employer and input from an employment expert as part of this process, resulting in an £11.5m claim.
Another case we worked on was thought to be the highest settlement ever for an adult with tetraplegia in 2020. This was due to the woman’s lifestyle pre-injury and how her claim would help her continue to live the way she had before the accident.
As a result of early interventions, intensive rehabilitation, a workable support package and key equipment, we were able to settle our client’s cases for these impressive amounts. To support our clients with their transition from rehabilitation to independent living, we also sourced and implemented a care, therapy and equipment package so that all their daily needs could be met, allowing them to begin to rebuild their lives.
Have you admitted liability?
Liability has an impact on settlement amounts. If liability has been admitted in full then you have the opportunity to get a 100% claim. If not, your lawyer will have to factor in ‘litigation risk’ when valuing your claim, which is the risk that should the case proceed to trial there is the risk you may not win and therefore receive no compensation. Your lawyer may also have to consider whether the value of your claim needs to be reduced if contributory negligence could be alleged.
This can happen in personal injury cases if you contribute to your own injury. For example, by not wearing a seatbelt in the event of a road traffic accident, your claim may be reduced by 25%, (sometimes more and sometimes less) depending on the circumstances of your injury.
Age considerations
An older person who experiences spinal cord injury may receive less than someone, for example, who just celebrated their 21st birthday. Because they have an estimated higher life expectancy, they require enough compensation to last throughout their expected lifetime, which could be millions when paired with other considerations such as their lifestyle or current employment.
For children, education is tied in with the loss of earnings. The compensation awarded to children with spinal cord injuries can be substantial and higher than that of an adult. This difference is because children have to live longer with their injuries and require more frequent replacement of equipment as they grow older.
As the value of compensation often depends on your care needs, future equipment and employment losses, if you pass away in the middle of the claim the value of compensation can often be substantially reduced as a large chunk of the value is future earnings, equipment or care which is no longer required.
As a group of expert solicitors, we factor in all possible expenses that may be required throughout their lifetime, including treatment costs, rehabilitation expenses, home modifications and any potential impact on their education and future income. This all has a huge effect on the level of settlement those injured receive.
A lawyer like Aspire Law
A good lawyer will know how to maximise the compensation claim in the client’s situation. At Aspire Law, we work closely with our clients to ensure we gather all of the necessary information needed to get the best possible claim. Get in touch with us today to discover more.