What Are Mixed Injury Claims?

Welcome to our guide on mixed injury claims. You may be able to make a personal injury claim if you sustained an injury as a result of someone else’s negligence. The negligent party must have owed you a duty of care in order for you to claim. 

In some scenarios, it could be that you only sustained a single injury, such as a broken hip or a dislocated shoulder. However, there could be instances where you claim for multiple injuries in the same claim.

Mixed injury claims

Mixed injury claims guide

This article focuses on these kinds of claims. We will look at factors like the kinds of injuries that you could be compensated for, as well as how the value of a claim can be calculated. If you have any questions, our advisors are ready and waiting to answer your questions at any time of the day or night.

Get in touch with us to see if you could make a No Win No Fee mixed injury claim. You can find our contact details below.

  • Call us on 0800 408 7825
  • Contact us through the webform on our website
  • Use the pop-up chat window in the corner 

Select A Section

  1. What Are Mixed Injury Claims?
  2. Types Of Mixed Injury Claims
  3. Will The New Whiplash Claim Rules Affect Mixed Injury Claims?
  4. How Are Multiple Injury Claims Calculated?
  5. How Public Interest Lawyers Can Help With Mixed Injury Claims

What Are Mixed Injury Claims?

Mixed injury claims is a phrase used to describe claims that encompass multiple injuries, rather than a single injury. A mixed injury claim can involve injuries of different severities. You may be claiming for a mix of serious injuries and minor injuries. 

Alternatively, you may be claiming for more than 1 minor injury or more than 1 serious injury. As long as you have sustained more than 1 injury, you could be compensated for them all, provided they were caused by a breach of a duty of care towards you.

The injuries could also be related, or they could independent of one other. For example, you could be in a car accident and sustain a physical injury such as a broken bone. This could also result in developing a mental condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both of these injuries can be valued independently, and then combined to arrive at a suitable total.

Types Of Mixed Injury Claims

There are a number of different accident types that could lead to mixed injury claims. One, as we have already mentioned above, is road traffic accidents. However, accidents at work could also result in you sustaining more than one injury that you’re eligible to claim for. This section elaborates on these two possible accident scenarios. 

Road Traffic Accidents Causing Mixed Injuries

There are a variety of kinds of road users that can be involved in road traffic accidents. Any of them could end up making a claim if they sustained more than one injury as the result of an accident caused by negligence.

For example, you could have been injured as a:

Depending on the circumstances of the accident, you could have sustained multiple injuries that you require compensation for. Your status as a road user does not necessarily affect your eligibility for compensation.

However, if you were responsible for how you were injured, then this could affect your ability to claim. You could however still be awarded a partial payout, provided you were only partly at fault for the accident in which you were injured. This is called a “split liability” claim. 

Drivers and their passengers may also now have to claim through a government portal called the Whiplash Reform Programme (WRP). We’ll go into more detail about these new rules later in the article. 

It’s also possible that a party other than another road user was responsible for your injuries. For example, you may have lost control of your vehicle due to damage to the road such as a pothole.

The Highways Act 1980 states the responsibility that certain organisations have to maintain roads. If the local authority or Highways England failed to maintain the roads and an accident occurred as a result, you may be able to claim for any injuries you sustain. 

Accidents At Work Causing Mixed Injuries

All employers have a legal obligation to take all reasonably practicable steps to reduce the risk of their employees being injured. This duty of care is outlined in section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

If an employee is injured because their employer didn’t take all reasonable steps that could have prevented an accident, then this could be interpreted as negligent behaviour. Therefore, it would be a breach of the employer’s duty of care.

An example of this could be an employer not being given adequate training before being asked to use specialised and potentially dangerous equipment and them being injured in the resultant act. Furthermore, an employer might fail to maintain good housekeeping in the workplace, meaning that hazards are present that pose a risk of causing injury. 

Will The New Whiplash Claim Rules Affect Mixed Injury Claims?

As mentioned earlier in this guide, the Whiplash Reform Programme (WRP) is now in place. All drivers and their passengers over the age of 18 claiming for any road traffic injury below the value of £5,000 must now claim through an online portal. However, the injury must have taken place in England or Wales and must have occurred on or after 31st May 2021.

Road users other than drivers and their passengers cannot claim through the WRP. For example, if you’re a cyclist and you sustain multiple injuries that are worth less than £5,000, you would claim in the traditional way. 

Making mixed injury claims through the WRP may not be appropriate, as the combined value of multiple injuries may be more likely to surpass the £5,000 value threshold. If this is the case, you are able to make a claim in the usual way without going through the online portal. 

How Are Multiple Injury Claims Calculated?

When you make a claim for compensation, your settlement could consist of two different heads of claim. The pain and suffering you experience, including mental suffering, will be compensated through a sum known as general damages. Legal professionals will calculate an appropriate amount with the assistance of a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). 

The JCG consists of a detailed description of a number of injuries that can be sustained as the result of a duty of care. Alongside each entry is a range of monetary values. This is the guideline amount of compensation that could be awarded. 

However, the way that multiple injury claims are calculated is very similar to how claims for single injuries are calculated. That is to say, they are treated as a set of unique circumstances. 

Because of this, the amounts in the JCG are simply guidelines. The amount that you’re eventually awarded could differ from the bracket found in these guidelines. Each injury is assessed individually, so mixed injury claims can be worth more than claims involving just a single injury. 

We have included a table below containing some example JCG entires. This way, you can gain a better understanding of how multiple injury claims could be calculated.

Edit
Injury Description Amount
Face (a) Very severe scarring – when the claimant is relatively young and the cosmetic damage is accompanied by a severe psychological reaction £27,940 to £91,350
Teeth (f)(i) When several front teeth are lost or seriously damaged £8,200 to £10,710
Jaw (iii) When the fracture is simple and a complete recovery requires immobilization £6,060 to £8,200
Toe (b) The great toe will be amputated In the region of £29,380
Leg (b) Severe – the most serious injury type that does not require amputation £90,320 to £127,530
Finger (j) Index finger fractured £8,550 to £11,480
Wrist (d) When a complete recovery is made from a fracture or soft tissue injury, but it takes slightly longer Rarely exceed £9,620
Shoulder (e) Clavicle fracture £4,830 to £11,490
Post-traumatic stress disorder (c) Moderate – any lasting effects will not be too disabling, and the victim will have largely recovered £7,680 to £21,730
Mental anguish (E) When the victim thinks they are about to die or that their lifespan will be reduced £4,380

Special Damages

Other figures such as a loss of earnings, medical bills or travels costs you have had to pay, or even damage to your personal property, could also be reimbursed as part of mixed injury claims. This head of your claim is known as special damages. You will need to provide evidence of these costs and losses with things like receipts or payslips.

If you need more information on how compensation is calculated, get in touch today. If you have a valid claim, you could be connected with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel to work on your claim. 

How Public Interest Lawyers Can Help With Mixed Injury Claims

The solicitors on our panel work on a No Win No Fee basis. This means that should you choose to enlist their services, you won’t have to cover their costs unless you are awarded compensation. 

Then, they are paid via a small percentage (that is capped by law) from your final settlement. You will be made aware of this in advance.

If you are not awarded compensation when operating under this kind of agreement, then you do not have to pay your personal injury lawyer anything. You also won’t be expected to make an upfront payment or to pay them at any point before the conclusion of your claim.  

If funding the services of a solicitor in this way sounds like it would be beneficial, get in touch with our advisors. You can: 

  • Call us on 0800 408 7825
  • Contact us through the webform on our website
  • Use the pop-up chat window in the corner 

Personal Injury Claim Resources

Below, you’ll find some links to additional resources that you may find useful.

  1. Our guide on claiming for a fractured neck.
  2. A general guide on road traffic accident claims.
  3. Information on slip and fall injury settlements.
  4. A litigation friend may be able to claim on your behalf – find out how.
  5. Broken bone symptoms and possible treatments – an NHS guide.
  6. CCTV footage can be used as evidence during the process of your claim. You have a legal right to make a request for it if you feature.

Thank you for reading our guide on mixed injury claims.

Article by AI

Publisher ET