Claiming Compensation For Serious Back Injury

Welcome to this guide on making a serious back injury claim. In this article, we will help those looking for guidance on how to claim compensation and will explain and give examples of how much you could be entitled to.

serious back injury claim

A guide to making a serious back injury claim

Your back is a crucial part of the body and if an injury should occur, it could sometimes lead to temporary or permanent immobility. This could cause you a lot of stress and you may be unable to complete daily tasks.

After reading this guide, you will be able to determine if you are entitled to compensation for your injuries. You may be suffering from a serious back injury that could have happened in a public place, you may have had a back injury at work, or you could be wondering how much the average settlement for a back injury claim is. We aim to help you.

Often, the thought of making a claim can be very unsettling, but do not let this delay you in taking the first steps. Once you have spoken to our advisors, they could connect you to our panel of solicitors if you have favourable grounds for a claim. However, you’ll be under no obligation to proceed with our services. What’s more, our advisors’ legal advice is free and they’re available 24/7.

If you would like to find out if you could be entitled to compensation then please contact our advisors using any of the details below. 

Select A Section

  1. When Could You Make A Serious Back Injury Claim?
  2. Types Of Serious Back Injuries
  3. Serious Back Injury Claims Against An Employer
  4. Serious Back Injury Claims After Road Traffic Accidents
  5. How Much Is The Average Serious Back Injury Claim Payout?
  6. Why Make A No Win No Fee Serious Back Injury Claim?

When Could You Make A Serious Back Injury Claim?

Accidents can happen pretty much anywhere and back injuries can be the result. If another party that owes you a duty of care is at fault for your injuries then you could make a serious back injury claim. 

You may have been injured at your place of work, had a slip, trip or fall in a public place, a road traffic accident or you may find yourself in hospital with a back injury due to medical negligence.

Suffering from any kind of spinal injury can really change your life, sometimes leaving a person paralysed because of nerve damage and bone damage. Sometimes, these accidents can be fatal.

Recovery can be a long process that can also affect your psychological wellbeing too. This can often have an impact on family members as they may have to care for you.

Even minor back injuries can have an impact on you, such as a sprain or if you have strained yourself. This can put obstacles in the way of your day-to-day duties, also causing you psychological damage.

Types Of Serious Back Injuries

There are lots of different injuries that could be involved in a serious back injury claim and many different causes of back pain. Some injuries include: 

  • Sprains and strains 
  • Herniated or bulging discs 
  • Fractured vertebrae 

There are some more injuries listed below

Paralysis

Paralysis involves the loss of function to all or part of your body.  This may be temporary or permanent depending on the severity of your injury.

Tetraplegia

This is the inability to move the lower or upper parts of the body. The areas affected can include the hands, fingers, legs, chest, toes, feet and sometimes the head, neck, and shoulders.

Paraplegia 

This affects the function of the lower half of your body. It can be caused by an illness or injury and affects part of your nervous system. 

Quadriplegia 

This is usually caused by an injury to the spinal cord. It causes paralysis from the neck down, including the trunk, arms and legs.

Spinal Fracture

There are many different types of spinal fractures: burst, compression, fracture-dislocation and flexion-distraction are examples. Fractures can be unstable, stable, major, or minor.

Spondylolisthesis 

This happens when one of your vertebrae slips out of position.

Spinal Stenosis

An illness that causes the narrowing of the spinal column, sometimes causing it to be very painful. It can leave you unable to cope with everyday activities.

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) 

This can result from direct injury to the spinal cord itself or from damage to the tissue and bones, for example. The spinal cord includes nerves and cells that send and receive signals from the brain to and from the rest of the body. 

Brachial Plexus Injury 

The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that sends signals from your spinal cord to your shoulder, arm and hand.

Serious Back Injury Claims Against An Employer 

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, all employers have a duty of care to take reasonable measures to keep their staff safe from any accidents.  

Back injuries are not uncommon injuries in the workplace and can cause serious harm to the employee, possibly leaving them unable to carry out their daily activities. If your employer has failed to provide this duty of care and you have an accident at work and suffer a back injury as a consequence, then you could make a serious back injury claim for compensation.

There are different ways in which a back injury could happen at work. They could include:

  • Equipment being faulty
  • Not enough staff working at the time to ensure safe practices
  • Slips, trips and falls
  • Handling, lifting or carrying injuries
  • Falls from a height

For instance, if you were made to lift a box that was too heavy and there wasn’t another staff member to help or there wasn’t appropriate machinery to aid lifting, this could cause you injury. Your employer may not have provided you with manual handling training, which led to your injury. This would mean the injury could be your employer’s fault. Therefore, you could make a personal injury claim

Serious Back Injury Claims After Road Traffic Accidents

Road traffic accidents could happen to any of us so it is very important to try to stick to the rules of the road to avoid this. Injuring your back can play a part in how you live from day to day. Making a serious back injury claim can at least take some pressure from you in regards to recovering compensation for the injuries and financial losses caused by it. 

Reading The Highway Code is essential to anybody using our roads; whether that be a cyclist, pedestrian, horse rider, mobility scooter user, driver or motorcyclist. 

The Highway Code can be bought from most high street bookstores or read for free online. Everybody should read this as there are consequences if you are not following the rules. 

Essentially, road users have a duty of care. They should use the roads with standard care and skill. If they breach this duty, they could cause an accident and injuries. What’s more, the injured party could make a road traffic accident claim. 

Road traffic accidents happen every day and can involve anything from a car crash to a pedestrian being hit. It could lead to a serious back injury claim.

Applying these rules to our everyday lives could notably reduce casualties, injuries and the number of deaths. The responsibility on our roads is all of ours to share. 

How Much Is The Average Serious Back Injury Claim Payout?

It’s difficult to apply the average serious back injury compensation amount to each individual case. That’s because compensation is calculated on a case-by-case basis. 

There are up to two heads of claim in a successful personal injury case. The first is general damages. General damages compensate you for the physical or mental injuries the other party’s negligence causes. 

Legal professionals can calculate general damages with the help of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is a publication that lists various injuries and potential corresponding awards.

To calculate the compensation you could claim for a serious back injury, please see the table below.

 

Edit
Injury Additional details Amount
Severe (i) Severe spinal cord and nerve roots damage leading to very serious consequences. £85,470 to £151,070
Severe (ii) Damage to the nerve root with loss of feeling, impaired mobility, impaired bladder and bowel function, sexual difficulties, and unsightly scarring. £69,600 to £82,980
Severe (iii) Disc lesions or fractures of discs, vertebral bodies or soft tissue injuries leading to chronic conditions despite surgery. £36,390 to £65,440
Moderate (i) Compression/crush fracture of the lumbar vertebrae where there is constant pain. £26,050 to £36,390
Moderate (ii) Disruption of ligaments and muscles causing pain. £11,730 to £26,050

 

If you can’t see your injuries in the compensation table above, why not get in touch with our advisors? They can value your claim for free.

As part of the personal injury claims process, you’d attend a medical assessment. An independent medical professional would assess your injuries and create a report. The purpose of this report is to establish:

  1. Whether the injuries you received are consistent with those that could be experienced due to the accident you endured. 
  2. The severity of your injuries. 

If you choose to use the services of a solicitor to claim, they would be able to use the report alongside the JCG to value general damages. 

Special damages are compensation for financial losses caused by the accident. You could, for example, include:

  • Loss of earnings (if you took time off to recover, for instance)
  • Cost of travel to and from medical appointments
  • Care costs if you needed to hire help or your family provided gracious care

There are other special damages you could claim. Our advisors could help you with this today if you get in touch on the number at the top of the page.

Why Make A No Win No Fee Serious Back Injury Claim?

Making a serious back injury claim can feel easier with the help of a solicitor. The solicitors on our panel work on a No Win No Fee basis for all claims they accept. A No Win No Fee agreement is a contract that you have with your solicitor. 

Essentially, it states that if your case were to lose, you won’t pay any solicitor fees at all. If it wins, you would pay a success fee. This success fee is capped by law. 

In addition, under a No Win No Fee agreement, you would have no upfront solicitor’s fee to pay and no ongoing solicitor’s fee.

Call today and we will explain how to claim or get free legal advice from one of our advisors. Our contact details are below.

Helpful Links

The NHS has advice if you’ve suffered a back injury.

The Health and Safety Executive (a government agency) has statistics on workplace accidents.

We have a guide you if you’ve had a cycling accident causing a back injury.

We also have an explanation of No Win No Fee.

Read our guide about what you could do after a car accident that wasn’t your fault.  

We also have a guide about public accident claims hot spots

Find out how to make a claim after a back injury caused by a chiropractor with our helpful guide.

If you have any questions about making a serious back injury claim, don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

Article by AA

Publisher UI