What Amount Of Compensation Can I Expect?

Personal injury law believes that anyone who has suffered harm as a result of someone else’s negligence should be compensated for their pain, suffering, and loss of amenity and should not be out-of-pocket as a result of their accident.

However, personal injury compensation is not some sort of windfall. Rather, it is intended to put the victim back in the position they would have been in had their accident not occurred.

Clearly, some injuries, such as severe brain damage, are so severe that no amount of money can return the victim to their pre-accident state. However, damages can go some way towards making good any financial losses and relieving any money worries the victim or their family have if the claimant’s injuries impact their earning capacity.

The legal term for compensation is ‘damages’. Personal injury damages are divided into two types: special and general.

Special and general damages compensate the claimant for different things and are calculated separately. How much compensation you could claim depend on these two types.

Special damages are intended to make good any financial losses, whether past or future, the claimant has sustained due to their accident. Your personal injury solicitor should be able to calculate your past losses fairly precisely based on evidence such as previous payslips, bank statements, and the like. However, future losses can be considerably more complicated, and working them out may involve a consideration of many variables. 

Special damages are often easier to quantify than general ones. Examples of the types of special damages personal injury claimants often include are as follows:

Special damages for past loss of earnings comprise the income you have lost from the date of your accident until your case ends. Claimants usually prove their loss of earnings by producing payslips to show their average income over the months leading up to the accident.

If you are self-employed, you will need other documentation, such as invoices and bank statements, to prove what you earn.

The defendant (the person defending the claim) may dispute that all the lost earnings you are claiming were due to their negligence. For example, if you cut back your hours following the accident, they may argue that you chose to do so because of a changed perspective, not because your injuries rendered you unable to work full-time.

Future lost earnings

Future loss of earnings includes the income you will likely lose following the end of your case until retirement. The future loss of earnings aspect of personal injury compensation can be significant, particularly if the accident has rendered a young, successful individual incapable of working again.

If the claimant can return to work in a less lucrative role or part-time instead of full-time, their future loss of earnings claim will comprise the difference between what they would have earned had the accident not occurred and what they are likely to earn now.

The calculation should also reflect any lost promotion prospects and potential bonus payments.

If you cannot work for a long time following your accident, you may sustain pension losses that can be included as part of your special damages calculation.

Pension losses arise when a claimant cannot continue paying into a private pension or making the national insurance contributions required to qualify for a state pension. 

You can claim your travel expenses as special damages as long as you incurred them as a result of your injury, and they are reasonable.

Examples of the types of travel expenses you may recover include those incurred when visiting the hospital, seeing your GP, or seeking other medical treatment, such as physiotherapy.

If you take public transport, you can claim the fare you paid. If you drive, you can claim a rate per mile for petrol as well as parking costs. 

If your injuries render you in need of care and assistance, you can include the care costs as part of your special damages claim.

The assistance you require might be specialist nursing care, or might simply be help around the house, such as with everyday tasks such as dressing, cleaning, shopping, or taking care of your children.

Some claimants do not incur care costs since their family members or friends voluntarily assume the role of carer. Nevertheless, you can include an amount for the care they provided gratuitously.

You would, however, hold the sums awarded on trust for the carer, meaning they are ultimately entitled to them. 

You can include the medical expenses you have already incurred and any you are likely to incur in the future in your special damages calculations.

Medical expenses include prescription charges and the cost of painkillers, together with any treatment or surgery you may require.

If you need any specialist equipment to help you cope with your injuries, such as a hearing aid or wheelchair, you can claim the cost of that equipment as part of your special damages. 

If you need to alter your home to accommodate your injuries, you can claim the cost of the work as part of your special damages. For example, if you need to use a wheelchair, you may need to install ramps, widen doors, and modify your bathroom.

Evidence to prove special damages

Special damages rely heavily on evidence. For losses you have already sustained, it’s vital that you retain all receipts, invoices, travel tickets, and any other documentation that proves what you have paid out. For loss of earnings claims, you should collate all relevant documentation showing your average income.

For future losses, your personal injury solicitor might rely on evidence of what you have already paid out to indicate what you will likely need to continue paying. In addition, they may gather further evidence.

That evidence might include expert medical evidence to show how long it will likely take for you to recover from your injuries and evidence from witnesses, such as your employer, regarding how your injuries will likely impact your employment prospects.

General damages aim to compensate the claimant for their pain, suffering, and loss of amenity insofar as a financial award ever can.

Some personal injuries are so severe, and their impact is so far-reaching that money can never truly compensate the victim for the harm they have sustained.

However, some claimants take comfort in the defendant being held to account for their actions and forced to pay damages.

Furthermore, on a purely practical level, if the claimant’s income has been affected by their accident, their damages can go a long way towards giving them and their family some much-needed financial stability while you all come to terms with what has happened. 

General damages are more difficult to quantify than special damages, since the judge must seek to place a value on the claimant’s injury and its impact on their life.

When deciding on a general damages figure, the judge will look at all the circumstances of the case, including the following:

• The nature of the injury
• The severity of the injury
• How old the claimant is
• Whether the claimant had any pre-existing conditions
• Whether the claimant is able to continue working
• The impact of the injuries on the claimant’s quality of life, such as whether they can continue participating in the hobbies they enjoyed before their accident

The Judicial College, which trains and advises Judges, has developed guidelines stating what might be considered an appropriate range of damages for specific injuries.

Since so much depends on the severity of the injury and its impact, the range of damages for each specific injury is very broad.

For example, the damages suggested when an accident caused the claimant to develop epilepsy are between £9,990 and £140,870.

The Judge in your case will refer to these guidelines when deciding on a general damages award. They will also refer to any medical evidence relating to your pain, suffering, and loss of amenity, and previous judgments in cases with facts similar to yours. 

To get a rough estimate of your potential final compensation amount, try our compensation claim calculator.

How long will your compensation take to come through? The first thing to understand is that the personal injury claims process can take some time to complete.

Your personal injury solicitor is obliged to act in your best interests, which includes securing the best possible outcome for you, which may take a while. 

When you can expect to receive your personal injury compensation depends on several factors, including whether your case settles out-of-court or goes to trial.

Most personal injury cases are settled before trial through settlement negotiations. How long settlement negotiations will last depends on the parties’ outlook and how quickly they can reach a compromise.

Sometimes, a defendant’s insurers may make a settlement offer early in the negotiations to extricate themselves from the issue, particularly when they are on the back foot.

However, a defendant’s first settlement offer rarely reflects the actual value of your claim, so it’s essential to take advice from your personal injury solicitor before accepting it to ensure you receive all you are entitled to. 

Once you have reached a settlement, you will likely receive your compensation within two to four weeks.

In the unlikely event that you can’t reach a settlement, you will need to wait until you have succeeded at trial to receive your compensation.

It can take some time, even years, for personal injury claims to reach a hearing. However, settlement talks will continue in the background, and you can settle your case even after the trial has started.    

If you prove at the hearing that the defendant’s negligence was responsible for your accident, the judge will likely award damages, which the defendant must usually pay within 2-3 weeks.

Many personal injury solicitors represent their clients on a no win, no fee basis. Under these arrangements, a claimant does not pay their solicitor’s costs unless and until they win their case, either at trial or through settlement negotiations with the defendant. 

Your personal injury solicitor will use their own form of no win, no fee agreement, which they should ensure you understand before signing. Most no win, no fee agreements have the following effects:

• If you lose your case, you will pay neither your own legal fees, nor those of the other side. 
• If you win your case and secure compensation, you will not have to pay the other side’s legal costs. The usual costs rule is that the loser pays, so the defendant should pay your legal costs in addition to their own.
• If you win your case and secure compensation, you will pay your solicitor the amount set out in the agreement. By law, this amount cannot be more than 25% of your compensation.

It may seem counterintuitive for solicitors to agree to carry out what can often be a significant amount of work with no guarantee of payment. However, experienced personal injury solicitors will be able to get to grips with the nuances of your personal injury claim early on and make an accurate assessment of its merits.

If they believe you have a good chance of winning, they will likely be happy to act on a no win no fee basis to enable you to pursue the compensation you deserve regardless of your financial circumstances. 

To find out more about making a personal injury compensation claim, call for free on 0800 234 6438 and speak with an impartial, trained legal advisor.