Sometimes a severe cut which leads to scarring may not be all that physically painful for a long time, but could be undesirable given that you may end up with a large and noticeable scar. Normally when it comes to making a claim for personal injury compensation, you’re entitled to money to reflect the severity and length of your suffering.
So if the cut itself only hurt for a few days, what about the fact you are left with a huge scar? Can this be claimed for?
The Law
The official guidelines used to value claims for compensation when it comes to the injury side of things does include scarring. If the scarring is bad, we will normally instruct an expert in the field of plastic surgery to see you for an appointment and to allow them to produce a report for us to use to value the claim.
Seeing a medical expert is normally a fundamental part of a claim, and when it comes to scarring injuries, it’s normally no different. Whilst people generally associate plastic surgery with cosmetic surgery, this isn’t actually the case; the field itself focuses largely on reconstruction, hand surgery, scarring on the skin (whether it’s from cuts or burns) and nerve injuries. As such, an expert report from someone in the field of plastic surgery would be used to value the claim.
How is the claim valued?
Using the expert report, we’ll look at things like how the scarring affects you mentally with reference to your working life as well as your social life. A lot of people are concerned about their appearance and it’s only natural to feel self conscious when it comes to visible scarring in prominent areas. This is what we look at – how the scarring makes you feel is a huge part of compensating you.
For some, scarring isn’t really a worry. I have a huge scar down almost the whole side of my left leg due to an operation, but I kind of like it since I’m male and think some scars look ‘cool’ – but not everyone will share my opinion. And if I’m honest, I’d be more concerned if the scarring was on my face as this directly affects the way a person looks.
A persons individual feelings about the scarring is taken in to serious account.
So, whist you may be left with a horrendous looking scar, the encouraging news is that you can be awarded compensation for it. If there is anything that can be done, like skin grafts or treatment to help either reduce or clear the appearance of scarring, we can try and get this funded by the other side. It’s no different to having physiotherapy for a broken leg – you’re entitled to claim for reasonable treatment.