A Complete Guide To Head Injury Claims
Head injuries can be of considerable severity, and injuries that seem mild can deteriorate rapidly, resulting in substantial impacts on your day-to-day life. To that end, we have created this head injury claims guide to explain when you could seek personal injury compensation for brain damage and head trauma.
Key Points For Head Injury Claims
- If your head injury was caused by someone else’s negligent actions, you could make a compensation claim.
- The compensation awarded could be for your injury as well as the financial losses it has caused you.
- Evidence will need to be presented to support your case.
- A No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you with making your claim.
For a free assessment of your eligibility to begin a brain injury claim or to ask any questions you may have, get in touch with our advisors today using the contact information given here:
- Call us on 020 3870 4868.
- Begin your claim online by completing our callback form.
- Open the live chat window on your screen now.
Browse This Guide
- Can I Make A Head Injury Claim?
- Examples Of Injuries To The Head
- Types Of Head And Brain Injuries
- Making Serious Head Injury Claims
- How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Head Injury?
- How To Make No Win No Fee Head Injury Claims
- Learn More About Personal Injury Claims
Can I Make A Head Injury Claim?
Head injury claims can be made after a variety of different accidents. However, your case will need to meet the following eligibility requirements:
- You were owed a duty of care by a third party.
- That third party breached this duty in some way.
- Their breach resulted in an accident, causing you to suffer a head injury.
A duty of care means a legal requirement to keep persons reasonably safe. There are various instances where you are owed a duty of care, such as:
- At Work: As per the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, employers are required to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of their employees.
- In Public Places: The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 imposes a duty of care on the parties in control of public places. These parties, known as occupiers, are required to take steps to ensure the reasonable safety of all visitors to their premises.
- On The Roads: All road users are required to navigate the roads in a way that minimises the risk of causing harm to one another. This means abiding by both the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act 1988.
How Long Do I Have To Make A Claim?
In most brain injury cases, you will have 3 years from the date of the incident to begin a claim, as per the Limitation Act 1980.
Can I Make A Claim For Someone Else?
Yes, you can. In certain circumstances, it is entirely possible to make a claim on behalf of someone else. This would require you to be appointed the injured person’s litigation friend. The circumstances in which a litigation friend could be appointed are:
- Where the injured person is a minor: those under the age of 18 when their accident occurs cannot claim on their own behalf. The time limit is, therefore frozen until their 18th birthday, giving them until they reach 21 to claim.
- Injured persons without the mental capacity to claim: By their very nature, a brain injury can dramatically impact a person’s mental faculties. Those who do not possess the mental capacity to claim for themselves will have the time limit halted altogether unless they regain this mental capacity. The time limit would then run from this date of recovery.
To inquire whether any exceptions apply in your particular circumstances, call our advisors today using the number given below.
Examples Of Injuries To The Head
As we stated above, there are a variety of circumstances in which a brain injury can occur. Below we set out a few potential scenarios, however we should emphasise this list by no means exhaustive. For a free assessment of your eligibility to claim for your particular injury, get in touch with our team today.
Examples of how a brain or head injury can occur include:
- Your employer failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) on a construction site. A heavy toolbox fell a scaffold and hit your head, causing a serious concussion.
- A driver under the influence of a controlled substance was travelling at very high speeds. The driver failed to stop in time for a line of stationary traffic and hit your vehicle in a rear-end collision. You suffered multiple very serious injuries in the crash, including brain damage.
- Failure to carry out safety inspections by hotel management resulted in a loose stair bannister going unrepaired. You lent on the bannister for support while taking luggage to your room, and it collapsed. You fell from the staircase and landed in the foyer, suffering severe head trauma.
You can get your eligiblity to claim assessed for no charge by speaking to our advisors today. Get in touch at any time using the contact information given below.
Types Of Head And Brain Injuries
Head and brain injuries can vary broadly in severity. We have provided a few examples of head injuries that you could seek compensation for here:
- Concussion.
- Brain aneurysm.
- Epilepsy.
- Damage to the brain itself.
- Psychological trauma.
- Reduction or loss of sight, smell or hearing.
- Damage to the bones of the jaw or face.
- Bruising.
- Lacerations and scarring.
You can get a free assessment of your eligibility to claim for a head injury by reaching out to our advisors today.
Making Serious Head Injury Claims
The more serious head injuries involve lasting brain damage, and the resulting impacts on day-to-day life can be severe. You could lose your ability to work, resulting in a significant drop in your income. The cost of any care or other medical treatment you require could also be substantial, especially in cases involving paralysis or severe epilepsy.
What Is An Interim Payment?
An interim payment is where the court rules to give you part of your head injury claim compensation in advance of the final payout. This is done in some cases to cover costs that need to be paid immediately, but the injured person does not have the money to do so. For example, you could apply for an interim payment to cover your mortgage if you are unable to work.
However, these are usually only awarded if the defendant has admitted liability or the courts deem your case as likely to succeed.
You can learn more about interim payments and serious injury claims by asking our advisors today.
How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Head Injury?
Compensation in successful head injury claims can be awarded under two different heads of loss. These are:
- General damages: compensation for physical and psychological harm caused by the accident.
- Special damages: compensation for financial losses. A head injury can result in a substantial impact on your finances. It is for this reason that special damages payments are often significantly higher than anything paid out under general damages.
We’ll examine special damages in more detail below. As for general damages, those tasked with calculating a potential compensation figure can refer to your medical documents in conjunction with the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG publication sets out guideline compensation brackets for various injuries.
We have taken the head and brain injury brackets and used them to collate this table. Please note that this table has been provided to act as guidance only.
Compensation Table
We would also like to emphasise that the top entry is not a JCG figure.
| Type of Injury | Severity | Guidelines Compensation Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Very Severe Injuries as well as Significant Financial Losses | Very Severe | Up to £5,000,000 + |
| Brain Damage | Very Severe (a) | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £267,340 to £344,150 | |
| Moderate (c)(i) | £183,190 to £267,340 | |
| Moderate (c)(ii) | £110,720 to £183,190 | |
| Moderate (c)(iii) | £52,550 to £110,720 | |
| Less Severe (d) | £18,700 to £52,550 | |
| Minor Injury (e) | £2,690 to £15,580 | |
| Epilepsy | Established Grand Mal | £124,470 to £183,190 |
Special Damages
As we said above, special damages compensate for the financial harm caused by your injuries. Examples of costs you could claim for include:
- Medical bills such as prescriptions, physiotherapy and other out-of-pocket expenses.
- The cost of domestic care if your injuries have impacted your ability to clean yourself, your home, prepare food or tend to any outside space.
- Loss of earnings due to time off work or reduced hours once you return.
- Transport expenses.
- Accessibility modifications to your home, for example a stairlift or accessible shower.
Claiming special damages will require you to provide supporting evidence. Make sure you hold onto documents such as your payslips, prescription letters and bills for care..
For a more information on how compensation is awarded in head injury claims, you can contact our advisors.
How To Make No Win No Fee Head Injury Claims
Our panel of expert head injury claims solicitors can offer their services on a strictly No Win No Fee basis.
The type of contract offered by our solicitors is called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). The CFA puts the advantage firmly with the claimant with benefits including:
- No fees for the solicitor to begin work on the claim.
- There will also be no fees payable during the claims process itself.
- And, if the claim fails, you will not incur any fees.
You will receive personal injury compensation if the claim succeeds. Some of this compensation will make up the solicitor’s success fee. Since a success fee’s percentage is legally capped by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, you will keep the majority of any compensation you receive.
For a free assessment of your eligibility or to ask any questions you may have, get in touch with our advisors today using the contact information given here:
- Call us on 020 3870 4868.
- Begin your claim online by completing our callback form.
- Open the live chat window on your screen now.
Learn More About Personal Injury Claims
You can read some of our other personal injury claims guides here:
- Read our guide on HGV accident claims here.
- Find if you could be eligible to claim for a femur fracture following an accident.
- Learn how much compensation you could receive if you tripped over an obstruction at work with this guide.
We also included these external resources for additional information:
- Check current road safety laws and access other resources from THINK!
- Find out more about administering first aid after an incident with this NHS guidance.
- You could be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if your injuries keep you off work. Learn more with this government page
We’d like to thank you for taking the time to read our head injury claims guide.
