In personal injury claims, you can claim General Damages which is money or compensation for the injury that you sustained. Further to this, you can also claim for Special Damages which covers any expenses or losses that you have incurred as a result of the accident.
One part of the Special Damages is for care and assistance.
This means that as a result of the accident and the injuries you sustained, you required additional care. This could be anything from assistance getting up and down stairs at home, assistance with personal hygiene, assistance with household chores, assistance with car maintenance, gardening etc. Even if a family member helps, you can still claim for a commercial hourly rate of care as part of the Special Damages.
The figure is usually based on an hourly rate of between £6.00 and £8.00.
It is normal for a family member to help you free of charge, as most of us would help our parents, partners or children if they required help. We would not charge a fee for this help. However, even if we don’t charge a fee, we can still claim an hourly rate between £6.00 and £8.00 back from the insurers.
In terms of Special Damages we will draft a Schedule for your approval. This will document all items of Special Damages claimed. This would include care and assistance. It is important that the Schedule is as accurate as possible. The Schedule would also need to be reasonable in and reflect the nature and extent of your injuries. For example if you sustained a minor whiplash injury then we would expect the care and assistance to reflect that.
If a Special Damages claim is wholly unreasonable then the insurers are likely to dispute it.
It is for the Claimant to prove the losses incurred. In terms of other expenses such as travel expenses this could be proved by keeping receipts for taxis, buses etc. In terms of care and assistance it is difficult to prove and therefore it is important that the amount claimed is reasonable and accurate in the circumstances. Your Schedule is likely to be more accurate if you keep a log of any on-going care and assistance. This makes things easier when it comes to preparing your Schedule.
Your Schedule could say, for example, that you required assistance with general household chores such as hoovering and cleaning for an hour a day over 4 weeks. Whether or not this is reasonable will depend on your injuries and the medical evidence obtained.
The important thing to note with care and assistance claims is that they should be accurate and reasonable in the circumstances. If the claim is unreasonable then the insurers are more likely to dispute it.