Spinal injury claims

Find out whether you stand a good chance at winning your spinal injury claims today.

An injury to the spine can be very debilitating, impacting mobility and brain function and presenting several challenges to the sufferer for the rest of his or her life. They can be life-changing and the person may need specialist care, special medical equipment and devices for movement.

Furthermore, you may need financial aid to help you with rehabilitation, apartment adaptations and other forms of care or support to ease your burden, especially since you may likely not be able to go back to work. This is why spinal injury compensation is very important.

You can therefore reach out to our spinal injury claim solicitors who also in partnership with the Spinal Injuries Association to make claims and win you a deserved compensation for your suffering.

Also remember that spinal injury claims usually have a 3-year time limit within which you must begin legal proceedings if you want to claim compensation according to the Limitation Act 1980. Therefore, do no delay before making your claims so that you do not risk losing out on the payout you deserve.

What Does the Spinal Cord Do?

The spinal cord is a long, thin bundle of nerves, tissues and fluids which connects the brain and lower back and carries signals from the brain to the rest of the body. The spinal cord which is protected by the vertebral column carries electrical nerve signals throughout the body enabling us to feel, move muscles and also control bodily functions.

An injury to the spinal cord affects sending and receiving signals to and from the brain. This means that there could be loss of sensation, movement and function.

Spinal injuries which may be a complete injury and an incomplete injury can result in varying levels of paralysis and disability. When it is complete, there is total loss of movement and sensation in various areas of the body.

Statistics show that every four hours, a person is paralysed as a result of a spinal injury in the UK.

Major Types Of Spinal Injuries

Spinal injuries are classified based on the severity of paralysis and loss of function. This may be complete or incomplete. For example, if the body is affected on both sides, and there is no muscle function, sensation or voluntary movement from the injury level down, it is referred to as complete spinal cord injury.

Incomplete injury refers to where there is some level of muscle function or sensation below the injury site.

Furthermore, a spinal injury can be referred to as tetraplegia or quadriplegia where all four limbs are paralysed. In a case where it affects parts of the trunk legs and pelvic organs, it is said to be paraplegic.

However, medical experts can also describe spine injuries by assigning them a letters and numbers based on their location;

• Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries – C1-C8
• Thoracic Spinal Cord Injuries – T1-T12
• Lumbar Spinal Cord Injuries – L1-L5
• Sacral Spinal Injuries – S1-S5

Depending on the severity, these spine injuries can be life changing injuries and so if they are caused by another person’s carelessness or the negligence of your healthcare provider, you should make claims so as to improve your quality of life going forward.

What Are the Most Common Causes Of Spinal Injury?

The following are the common causes of spinal injury;

• Road Traffic Accidents: These are actually the major cause of spinal cord injury. Statistics show that almost half of all new spinal injuries every year are caused by auto and motorcycle accidents. The neck or upper spine can easily break when physical trauma is experienced in a high-speed accident as car safety belts, airbags and neck supports can only prevent injury in lower speed car accidents.
• Slips, Trips And Falls From Height: According to figures, falls and trips are the cause of over a third of spinal cord injuries. Additionally, falls account for the majority of spinal cord injuries in persons above 65 yrs.
• Assaults: assaults and acts of violence are known to account for more than 13% of spinal injuries. These also include injuries from gunshot and knife wound
• Construction Site Accidents: in the UK, construction site accidents or workplace accidents account for an average of 12% of all spinal cord injuries. Injuries to the spine are common in the workplace although they are mostly either minor or moderate. Spinal injuries that can be sustained here include spinal damage such as disc or vertebrae being forced out of place and strain or tearing of the supporting muscles.
• Alcohol: 25% of spinal cord injuries are attributed to alcohol use.
• Sport injuries: 10% of spinal injuries result from recreational activities, athletic activities and impact sports.
• Diseases: Spinal injuries can also be caused by diseases such as cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis and inflammation of the spinal cord.

Spinal injury claims can therefore be made where the injury is caused by medical negligence, road traffic accident, assaults, negligence of your manager, contractor or others in charge at a construction site. Your back injury compensation claims have to be kickstarted as soon as possible to give you a good chance of having a successful claim.

According to the National Institute For Health And Care Excellence (NICE), around 500 to 600 people suffer traumatic injuries to the spinal cord each year in the UK.

Procedures and Time Limit for Spinal Injury Compensation Claims

There are a number of negligent actions which can lead to a spinal injury. These mistakes may occur during a poorly performed surgery or other forms of medical negligence. Such mistakes can lead to making spinal injury claims.

Some of these negligent actions include;

• Surgical errors including anaesthesia errors, wrong site surgery, unnecessary surgery as a result of misdiagnosis, poorly performed surgery, etc.
• Poor post-operative care
• Failing to assess a patient properly before the surgery.

While some spinal damage may be corrected or at least made better with further treatment or therapy, some conditions are irreversible.

For instance, if you are able to show that your doctor was negligent in his care towards you but you are not able to show that the harm you suffered was as a result of the negligent care, your case will not be successful as you have been able to show liability but not causation.

The claims procedure is as follows

• Reach out to your back-injury solicitors. Your back-injury lawyers will evaluate your case and be sure you have good grounds to make a claim.
• Your spinal injury solicitors will guide you on how to fund your claim. For claims such as these, we undertake them on a no win no fee basis which means you do not have to pay legal fees before we begin to handle your claim.
• Gather evidence and provide necessary documents needed to strengthen your case
• Prove that the defendant was indeed at fault
• Secure interim payments to help you take care of any financial needs you may have, access further medical treatments, and take care of any debts you may have incurred as a result of the injury.
• Negotiations between both parties and payment of final settlement

In the case that both parties are unable to reach an agreement, the case may go all the way to the law court where it will be presided over by a judge. This however does not happen very often as only an average of 2% of all NHS negligence claims go to court.

When making spinal injury claims, one of the major factors to take into consideration is the time limit within which claims can be made. Like all personal injury & medical negligence claims, the time window for making claims for spinal injury is 3 years from the date of accident.

Spinal Injury Compensation Payouts UK- How much can you get for a spine injury?

The compensation amount for your claim whether a lumbar spine injury compensation or a quadriplegia compensation will be dependent on several factors. Our spinal injury solicitors are able to use the NHS compensation calculator to give you an idea of what your settlement payout could be.

Spinal cord injury compensation amounts are usually high and from the table below, we can see a range of compensation amounts for various injuries as outlined by the Judicial College.

These compensation amounts cover what is known as “General damages”, The following factors fall under “special damages” and they go a long way to determine your compensation amount.

• Severity of your injury
• Damages caused by the injury
• Financial losses including estimated future loss
• Future prognosis
• Costs of medical treatment and therapies
• Costs of buying assistive devices and mobility aids
• Accommodation adjustments
• Costs of hiring caregivers, etc.

Start Your Claim with our Solicitors!

If you feel you have a legitimate claim for back injury compensation or spinal injury, we encourage you to reach out to our spinal cord injury no win no fee solicitors as soon as possible to make your claims and get compensation payouts for your injury.

You can call us on 0800 999 3372 or fill out our online contact form so that we can have a no obligation chat about your spinal injury compensation claim.