Serious Injury

Serious injuries are life-changing injuries with permanent significant impact requiring ongoing care or affecting earning capacity. Examples include brain injuries affecting cognitive function, spinal cord injuries causing paralysis, amputations, severe burns, multiple fractures, organ damage, or conditions leaving people dependent on care.

These high-value claims require compensation covering decades of care, therapy, equipment, accommodation adaptations, case management, and lost earning capacity. Impact extends beyond injured people to family members who become carers, requiring comprehensive compensation.

Traumatic brain injury results from impacts to heads causing brain damage. Severity ranges from mild concussion to severe brain damage requiring 24-hour care. Symptoms include cognitive impairment, memory problems, personality changes, physical disabilities, or reduced executive function.

Brain injuries often aren’t immediately apparent, with symptoms developing over months. Claims require expert neurology, neuropsychology, and psychiatry evidence establishing injury extent, prognosis, care needs, and impact on work capacity. Compensation reflects lifelong consequences.

Catastrophic injury compensation varies enormously. Compensation for serious injuries depends on the severity of the injury, the level of care required, and the long-term impact on your life. Every case is assessed individually. Compensation covers pain and suffering, lifetime care costs, therapy, equipment, accommodation, case management, and lost earnings.

We appoint experts to quantify all future needs comprehensively. Life expectancy, care requirements, and accommodation costs significantly affect total compensation. Periodical payments provide guaranteed annual income giving financial security throughout life.

Periodical payment orders provide guaranteed annual income for life covering care and case management costs, automatically adjusted for inflation using care cost indices. This is more valuable than lump sums that might run out if you live longer than expected or care costs rise faster than investment returns.

Courts can order periodical payments even if defendants object. They’re secured by government guarantee if defendants become insolvent. Most catastrophic injury settlements include periodical payments for care costs plus lump sums for accommodation, equipment, and other one-off costs.

Interim payments are payments made before final settlement, available once liability is admitted or established. They fund immediate needs including rehabilitation, therapies, equipment, accommodation adaptations, and care pending final settlement. Courts can order interim payments if liability is clear.

We seek early interim payments ensuring you receive appropriate treatment and support during litigation. Interim payments are deducted from final compensation but provide crucial early funding for rehabilitation optimising recovery and quality of life.

Case managers coordinate all aspects of care, therapy, and rehabilitation for seriously injured people. They liaise with medical professionals, arrange therapies, source equipment, coordinate care packages, and ensure all needs are met. Case management is essential for catastrophic injuries with complex ongoing needs.

We arrange case management early after accidents, funded by interim payments. Case managers provide invaluable support to families dealing with overwhelming care responsibilities while also helping quantify future care needs and costs for compensation claims.

Catastrophic injury claims can take several years to reach final settlement, as it’s important to fully understand the long-term impact before settling. They require extensive expert evidence about prognosis, care needs, and future costs. Injuries must stabilise before final prognosis can be determined, often taking years after accidents.

However, we seek early interim payments funding immediate needs. Most claims settle before trial once all expert evidence is exchanged and parties understand the amount of compensation. Some proceed to split trials determining liability before the amount of compensation, allowing earlier findings on fault while the evidence for the claims amount develops.