Multiple Injury Claims
Does your claim qualify? Get free, no obligation advice!
If you’ve suffered multiple injuries as the result of the same accident that wasn’t your fault, you could be eligible to claim multiple injury compensation
Experiencing any type of physical injury is painful and distressing, but if you’ve had the misfortune to have sustained multiple injuries as a result of the same accident – you may be going through one of the most difficult times of your life.
We understand that the level of pain and suffering you’ve endured, and the prospect of further treatment and a potentially long road to recovery, are extremely traumatic.
If the accident was not your fault, you have every right to claim multiple injury compensation from those responsible.
These are considered serious accident cases and the law recognises that the injured should be compensated fairly.
It’s not uncommon to be involved in an accident and come away with a single injury. But more often than not, a car accident or work accident has happened causing a second or third injury (or more) to the victim, such as a number of fractures.
There’s actually no legal definition for the term ‘multiple injuries’; rather it refers to cases where the injured person has suffered more than one injury in the same accident, whether that’s a broken limb and internal injuries; a head injury, bleeding and a broken ankle; or a range of injuries to different parts of the body. It could also extend to further complications that arise out of an initial injury.
Multiple injuries can also include psychological injuries if the accident has caused psychological or emotional harm as well as physical injuries.
There’s also the added complication and distress of long term scarring. Scarring can be treated as a second (or additional) injury – for example, if you suffered a fracture and the bone has pierced the skin, then your solicitor will take into consideration the resulting scar, in addition to the fracture, when working out your compensation.
Any type of physical injury can have a devastating impact on your life, and suffering a number of injuries in a single accident can feel particularly unfair. Fortunately, the law protects anyone who has been injured in a no fault accident and allows them the chance to make a multiple injury claim under a no win no fee agreement.
In most cases you can claim compensation on a no win no fee basis, removing the financial risk of seeking compensation for multiple injuries sustained.
This means if your claim is unsuccessful, you’ll have no legal fees to pay out – and if your claim is successful, then you’ll receive compensation and can spend it however you choose. Out of your compensation, you’ll pay a solicitor’s ‘success fee’ to cover the law firm costs involved, but it will never be more than 25% of the money you receive.
For more information about making personal injury claims after suffering several injuries, get in touch with a trained legal adviser for free advice on 0800 234 6438. If you prefer, complete our online contact form and request a call back to discuss the injury claims process and how your compensation for several injuries could be calculated.
The reality is, a significant proportion of personal injury compensation claims involve a range of injuries. This means you can take reassurance from the fact that your solicitor will be experienced in successfully acting in multiple injury claims.
Individuals who suffer several injuries in an accident that happened through no fault of their own invariably have the legal right to bring multiple injury claims for compensation. You should be able to make a multiple injury claim if:
The most important step you can take is to call for a free initial consultation with a trained legal adviser on 0800 234 6438 and find out how to make a no win no fee multiple injury claim.
The effect of suffering many injuries can be devastating and long lasting. In the worst cases, they may prove fatal.
Multiple injuries can, by their very nature, take a long time to heal; but it’s not just the physical injuries that can have an impact on your life:
Any serious injury can have a devastating impact on your life, and it can feel particularly unfair if the accident wasn’t your fault.
If you do decide to make a multiple injury claim, your personal injury solicitor will make sure your compensation covers every aspect of how your injuries have affected your work, your life and your future.
post-traumatic stress and depression. You may be left unable to live life in the same way as before; and you may have to give up hobbies or your usual sporting activities.
Any serious injury can have a devastating impact on your life, and it can feel particularly unfair if the accident wasn’t your fault.
If you do decide to make a multiple injury claim, your personal injury solicitor will make sure your compensation covers every aspect of how your injuries have affected your work, your life and your future.
Multiple injuries can be caused by many types of accidents, but are particularly common in road traffic accidents, as any victim will testify to. The sudden impact of a collision involving a vehicle can cause:
Other common causes of multiple personal injuries include:
Cyclists and motorcyclists are at particular risk of suffering several significant injuries in a road traffic accident. This is because they are classified as ‘vulnerable road users’.
A vulnerable road user is more likely to be seriously injured if an accident happens on the road – they do not have the extra crash protection that a driver has (ie the metal protection provided by a vehicle).
In the case of a collision, the pedestrian or cyclist’s body takes a direct hit – it’s not difficult to understand how serious their injuries are likely to be.
It’s reassuring that the UK government recently introduced new rules in an effort to increase safety for vulnerable road users in a drive to reduce the risk of physical injuries.
Car and other vehicles are expected to take extra care and additional measures to minimise the risk of a road accident and causing injuries to a vulnerable road user.
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that you’re completely safe on UK road and accidents continue to happen.
If you’ve been injured in a collision with a vehicle and suffered multiple injuries as cyclist or pedestrian, there’s every chance you can make a claim for compensation with the benefit of a no win no fee agreement.
Contact legal advisors for a free consultation on 0800 234 6438 or, if you prefer, complete our online contact form and request a call back.
FACT
By 2021, the number of pedal cyclist fatalities had risen by 13% since 2017. Unfortunately, more pedestrians and motorcyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in 2021 compared to 2020
SOURCE: Gov.uk
No worker should be put at risk of suffering any sort of safety risk at work; so if an employee is involved in a workplace accident and sustained several injuries, the employer should be held responsible.
Every employer has a strict legal duty of care to keep their workers safe from the risk of injury at work.
They are required to comply with general legal duties set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. For example, all employers must carry out an initial risk assessment and additional risk assessments on a regular basis.
They must then act promptly if any health and safety risks are identified, eg safety guards should be repaired or replaced if inadequate and warning signs erected where an immediate health risk is identified.
Staff must also be properly trained and supervised and provided with adequate personal protective equipment.
In addition, employers are required to comply with specific legal obligations depending on the sector and type of business you’re working in.
For example, if you’re required to work from a height as part of your job, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply. These impose a duty on employers to take measures to prevent death and injury from falls from height, such as ensuring work from height is properly planned and supervised; and that you are competent to do it.
If the employer breaches their duties and you fall from a height, you’re at a high risk of suffering a number of injuries.
If this happened to you, you can bring a no win no fee multiple injury claim for compensation for multiple injuries.
It’s an unwelcome reality that accident victims who suffer many injuries in serious accidents die. They may die quickly after the accident or they may lose their fight for life after many months on life support.
The death of a loved one leaves behind the bereaved relatives who are left to pick up the pieces of their lives.
While we appreciate any compensation awarded can never bring back your loved one, it can be comforting to know that you should be able to make a personal injury claim for their injuries and/or their death if someone else was responsible.
The prospect of claiming fatal accident compensation after the death of a loved one is inevitably daunting. But with the support of sensitive personal injury lawyers who are experienced in these types of personal injury claims, you should start to think about seeking compensation.
Call for a free consultation with legal advisors on 0800 234 6438 or, if you prefer, complete our online contact form and request a call back to get started on your no win no fee claim.
This partly depends on whether death was instantaneous or – at the other end of the scale – whether your loved one died after a lengthy period of physical pain and treatment. You may be able to claim:
It’s very reassuring to know that UK law recognises the potentially wide-ranging impact of a relative’s death in an incident that was caused by someone else’s negligence.
For initial legal advice, call for free on 0800 234 6438. If you prefer, complete our online contact form and request a call back at a time that suits you.
No two multiple injury cases are the same, so it’s impossible to know exactly how much compensation you might receive before you start your claim.
The amount of compensation you receive will reflect the nature and extent of your injuries, including whether you’ll have permanent symptoms or scarring and the wider impact on your life.
Your injury claim will made up of ‘general’ damages to compensate you for your actual injuries and ‘loss of amenity’; and ‘special damages’ to cover your financial losses.
Your solicitor will consider the full nature and impact of each of your injuries when calculating your estimated compensation, and will work hard to get you the money you need.
For example, your injury claim can include:
Given that the range of potential compensation items is so wide, it is sensible to keep a note of the costs you’re having to pay out for. Have this to hand when discussing your case with your personal injury solicitors.
It is very difficult, early on in a claim, to estimate how much compensation for your actual injuries will be a fair amount, simply because each case is different.
However, there are official Judicial College Guidelines for compensation (now in its 16th edition), which lawyers follow in order to assess a fair level of compensation. These suggest amounts of compensation for specific injuries, depending on severity and permanence.
For multiple injury claims, you might think that each individual injury would therefore be calculated – then added together to produce a total.
In practice, this is not what happens. Instead, the most serious injury is calculated first; then a further amount added to that figure in respect of each other injuries.
A working example can help: an individual suffers a serious head injury and is left with brain damage. She also breaks her arm and suffers internal bleeding requiring an operation.
Assuming her head injury is her most serious injury, individual amounts for her specific injuries, taking into account the guidelines, are:
Her lawyer takes the upper figure of £150,000, then adds a smaller percentage of the amount calculated for the broken arm (£5,000) and for the internal injury (£6,000). The other side agrees and so the total compensation for her injuries is settled at £161,000.
You might want to try our multiple injury compensation calculator which can also give you an idea of how much money you might be due for your injuries.
Whatever your injuries, you can be reassured that your solicitor will work hard to receive the maximum compensation you deserve.
CASE STUDY
An elderly man who tripped over a trailing wire at a crematorium and suffered a number of injuries was awarded £20,000 from Brighton and Hove City Council. Derek Granger was 95 when the accident caused a shoulder dislocation and significant muscle tears in his shoulder.
You can claim compensation to cover the majority of financial losses that have resulted directly from your accident and injuries.
In multiple injury claims, this could be substantial because you may no longer be able to work, you may have to give up your sporting activities and may need expensive home alterations.
Because of this, your special damages claim may include, for example:
We strongly advise you to keep a record of spending, and all your documentation (eg invoices, receipts, pay slips) – your solicitor will need these when your full special damages claim is calculated.
As multiple injury claims can be very complicated, it can sometimes take a while for your claim to be completed.
Your injuries will probably already have caused you a significant amount of stress and expense, so, where possible, your solicitor will try to get you an initial interim payment of compensation before your case concludes.
Such payments are an amount of compensation you receive before your final settlement. This is to cover your immediate needs and allows you to get the help you need while your case progresses. In the case of several injuries, you may:
However, it is important to understand that early payments are only available if responsibility is accepted by the other side.
Your solicitor will work hard to ensure the issue of liability is settled as soon as possible so that they can concentrate on getting a fair settlement and early part-payments when possible.
Following an accident, it can be easy to feel that some part of it was your fault – that you were ‘careless’ or ‘should have seen the car coming’.
However, it’s more often than not that someone else should have taken steps to make sure you were safe – your employers in the workplace, your local authority or, for example, other road users.
Never assume an accident was your fault – always talk it through with a specialist solicitor. Even if you were considered partly to blame, that doesn’t not mean you cannot claim compensation.
When you speak to a solicitor, they’ll gather as much evidence as possible to demonstrate who was liable for your injury – this will make your claim easier, and your solicitor can then try to secure interim payments.
If fault is not admitted, your solicitor will have to prove that the other side was negligent. This will mean demonstrating that they owed you a duty of care, that this duty was breached, and your injuries were the direct result.
Your solicitor will take a full account of events leading to the accident. They’ll also need as much evidence as possible to build a strong case for you such as:
Your solicitor will tell you what other information and documents they may need to build the strongest possible claim – the more evidence you have, the stronger the chances of your claim being successful.
They will also apply for your medical records and arrange an assessment with an expert medical professional on your injuries and your prognosis.
It’s likely more than one of these will be needed in the case of multiple injuries, in order to provide a full picture of what you’ve gone through and the rehabilitation needed for all your injuries.
You should take steps to make your compensation claim as soon as possible because, usually, you only have three years from the date of the accident in which to start legal proceedings.
After three years, you’ll be what is known as ‘time-barred’ and might not be able claim compensation. In the case of fatal accidents, the three-year limitation period starts to run from the date of death.
If you’re claiming for a child, you have until they reach 18 to make a claim on their behalf (they then have until they’re 21 to make a claim in their own name).
If you’re claiming on behalf of someone who isn’t able to do so on their own because of the extent of their injuries, this three-year period doesn’t start until they’ve regained their mental capacity.
However, whether you’re claiming for yourself or for anyone else, start the ball rolling as soon as you can while the accident is fresh in your mind.
If you or a loved one has suffered multiple injuries a result of someone’s negligence, speak to a legal advisor about making a compensation claim as early as possible.
Most solicitors work on a no win no fee claims basis, which means there is minimal risk in starting the claim.
You can speak to an expert legal adviser on 0800 234 6438 or by filling in one of the secure call back forms on this page.
CASE STUDY
A cyclist who suffered multiple injuries in a collision with a motorist won £7,000 in Spring 2021. The cyclist was hit by a car pulling out of side street, causing injuries that include a broken collar, multiple bruises and injuries to his knee and ankle.
SOURCE: Leeds Live
Nicola is a dual qualified journalist and non-practising solicitor. She is a legal journalist, editor and author with more than 20 years' experience writing about the law.
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