In this guide on when you can make a serious neck injury claim, we look at the personal injury claims eligibility criteria to determine if and when you can make a claim for yourself or someone else. We also explore examples of how a serious neck injury can happen and who could be liable for the suffering you have been caused.
Furthermore, this guide explores what evidence you need to support your serious neck injury claim. Evidence can prove third-party liability along with the extent of your suffering.
Following this, we look at guideline compensation brackets and demonstrate a scenario using an illustrative case study for a serious neck injury claim.
Learn How To Claim For A Serious Neck Injury
If your claim is eligible, you may be connected to our panel of No Win No Fee serious injury solicitors. Read this guide to learn about the benefits our panel of solicitors can offer you. Alternatively, if you want to chat directly with us, you can contact us by:
- Phone: 0800 408 7825.
- Putting your details in our Contact Us form.
- Messaging an online advisor directly in our live chat box.
Select A Section
- Eligibility Criteria When Making A Serious Neck Injury Claim
- How Do You Prove Liability In A Neck Injury Claim?
- Case Study: £2 Million Payout For A Serious Neck Injury Claim
- What Neck Injury Compensation Could You Receive?
- Claim Neck Injury Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis
- Learn More About Serious Injury Claims
Eligibility Criteria When Making A Serious Neck Injury Claim
In order to make a serious neck injury claim, you must have suffered an injury due to a duty of care being breached that was owed to you.
More precisely, to have an eligible claim, you must satisfy the following personal injury claims eligibility criteria:
- Show that you were owed a duty of care.
- Prove that the third party that owed you this duty of care breached it.
- Prove that because of this breach of duty of care, you suffered a serious neck injury.
The following subsections explain who could have owed you a duty of care depending on your location.
A serious neck injury causes life-changing effects and can permanently debilitate your physical and mental health. This is why we want to support you. Contact us today for a free claims assessment and to potentially connect with our panel of solicitors.
Road Traffic Accidents
Every road user owes a duty of care to one another on the roads to prevent accidents and injuries. Road users should follow the rules in The Highway Code and The Road Traffic Act 1988 to abide by their duty of care.
For example: a driver is breaching their duty of care by exceeding the speed limit. Due to the driver’s speed, they cannot stop in time and cause a rear-end road traffic accident with the car ahead. As a result, the driver of the car in front suffered a serious neck injury.
Accidents In A Public Place
For public places, all occupiers with full or partial control of that space owe a duty of care to the general public who uses their space as designed. As expressed in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, they must ensure reasonable safety, they can do this by conducting regular risk assessments and implementing health and safety measures to prevent public place accidents and injuries.
For instance, a library has exposed wires but no signs to warn the public of the wire trip hazard. The lack of signage can cause someone to have a fractured neck from tripping and falling.
Accidents At Work
According to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, all employers owe their employees a duty of care to take reasonable and practicable steps to prevent injury while at work. To abide by this duty, employers must take reasonable steps to ensure safety, such as conducting regular risk assessments and providing employees with the correct Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and training.
For example: An employer on a construction site provides a defective ladder to use. This leads to the employee falling from a height and sustaining multiple serious neck injuries.
Explain your specific incident with us. We can tell you if a third party is at least partly liable for your injury.
How Do You Prove Liability In A Neck Injury Claim?
Some of the ways you can prove your personal injury claim is by gathering evidence to show third-party liability and your injury’s impacts. You can gather:
- CCTV footage that shows your accident and how it happened.
- Dash-cam footage for road traffic accident claims.
- Photographs of your injury and the causation of the accident if they are visible.
- Eyewitness contact details.
- Your mental and physical symptom recordings that are in a diary.
- Copies of different medical reports from the care you have received.
As part of the service they offer, if you are connected with a solicitor from our panel, they can assist in gathering your evidence. Our contact details can be found in the introduction of this guide.
Case Study: £2 Million Payout For A Serious Neck Injury Claim
A car dangerously speeding on the motorway led to Mr Fisher being rear-ended by the speeding vehicle. Mr Fisher was taken into hospital immediately for his serious neck injury.
At the hospital, it was announced that Mr Fisher had suffered spastic quadriparesis and intractable headaches, meaning his life would be affected forever.
His wife contacted personal injury solicitors who agreed to take the case on. They were able to gather dash-cam footage from other cars, a diary of his recorded symptoms, and medical reports to support his claim.
Mr Fisher was awarded £2 million in compensation for his:
- Complete change in the quality of life.
- Loss of earnings since he could not return to his job.
- Psychological harm, depression.
- The extent of his pain and the permanence of his injuries.
- Lifestyle adaptations
- Travel expenses
- Home adaptations
- In-home nursing and home help
To see if you can claim compensation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Our services are available 24/7.
What Neck Injury Compensation Could You Receive?
Up to two heads of claim may make up a compensation payout if a serious neck injury claim is successful.
Firstly, general damages will be awarded. General damages compensate for the physical and mental injuries you are suffering. Aspects such as depression, recovery time, and quality of life are considered for this payout.
Solicitors often turn to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) and your independent medical assessments to evaluate this payout. The JCG is a document with information from previous successful personal injury court cases. This document contains different types of injuries and their guideline compensation brackets.
Compensation Table
From the JCG, you can find guideline compensation brackets for different serious neck injuries below. Please note, that this is for guidance only and not guaranteed amounts for what you could receive for the same injury.
| Injury | Severity | Guideline compensation bracket | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries | Serious | Up to £1,000,000+ | More than one serious injury and the financial losses they have caused, such as lost wages. |
| Neck | Severe (a) (i) | In the region of £148,330 | Despite wearing a neck collar 24/7 for at least several years, there is no ability to move the neck. |
| Severe (a) (ii) | £65,740 to £130,930 | Serious fractures or damage to discs in the cervical spine. | |
| Paralysis | Tetraplegia (a) | £324,600 to £403,990 | Factors influencing this award include: physical pain present or where there is a significant effect on senses or ability to communicate, extent of dependence and age. |
| Paraplegia (b) | £219,070 to 284,260 | Factors influencing this award include: physical pain present or where there is a significant effect on senses or ability to communicate, extent of dependence and age. | |
| Special damages | Lost wages | Up to £100,000+ | If you have not been able to work because of the injuries, you can claim compensation for your lost wages. If you can no longer work then you can also claim for future loss of earnings. |
Can Financial Losses Be Part Of My Neck Injury Claim Amount?
Secondly, special damages may be awarded. Special damages compensate for the money you have spent that you wouldn’t have otherwise without your injury. It can also account for losses that you have or will occur in the future. Often in serious injury claims special damages can be a much larger amount than general damages, however, you can only be awarded special damages if you are also eligible for general damages. You must keep receipts, invoices, payslips, travel tickets, and bank statements to prove the money you have lost.
Thus, special damages include:
- Past and future lost wages.
- Adaptations (to your home, car, etc.)
- Travel costs.
- Medical costs.
- Care costs.
To enquire more about what makes up your compensation total, contact us. We can answer any of your questions.
Claim Neck Injury Compensation On A No Win No Fee Basis
A Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) is the type of No Win No Fee contract that our panel of solicitors offer, should you be put in contact with them by our team.
You do not have to pay any money with a CFA for your solicitor’s service unless your serious neck injury claim is successful, including any upfront or ongoing costs.
If your claim succeeds, your appointed solicitor will take a success fee from your compensation. This fee always has a maximum percentage of what can be taken that the law sets. So, you still receive the majority of your payout.
Contact Us
We are sorry that you or someone you know has suffered a serious neck injury. If the injury was a third party’s fault, please contact us today. Our panel of solicitors and our team will use their knowledge and experience in the legal field of personal injuries to support you as much as possible and tell you whether you may be able to claim compensation. Get in touch with us by:
- Phone: 0800 408 7825.
- Putting your details on our Contact Us form.
- Messaging an online advisor directly in our live chat box.
Learn More About Serious Injury Claims
You have come to the end of our guide on when you can make a serious neck injury claim. We hope you are more knowledgeable on what you could do next. You can learn more about serious injury claims by reading our other guides:
- Read more about claiming compensation after a serious accident at work.
- See more examples of serious injury claim payouts.
- What to do if the third party is not admitting liability.
- If you would like to claim for a non-serious neck injury click here to find out more.
You can also read these external pages for more information:
- NHS – how to treat neck pain.
- HSE – health and safety statistics for accidents at work.
- Gov.UK – road traffic accidents and safety statistics.