Many people think that you need to have broken something to make a claim for personal injury compensation, but this isn’t true. Soft tissue damage, which usually categorises for any bruising, sprains, or twisting type injuries to the muscles and ligaments in the area, is a claimable injury.
Many are worried whether it’s even worth claiming for – but there’s a lot more to claiming than you might think, so read on for some useful advice about what you can claim for and how much you could be entitled to.
What can be claimed for?
Your claim will be formed in to two parts – one is for General Damages, and the other is for Special Damages.
General Damages is for the pain, suffering, and loss of amenity caused. This can cover the affect the injury has had on your own life at work, socially, domestically, etc. For this part the general rule is this – the more you suffer, the more we get for you.
If you couldn’t play sports or go to the gym, which is something you normally do, then this can be factored in to the claim. The bigger the impact, the more a claim can be worth. We do look closely at anything that has been affected by the injury so we can take this in to account.
Special Damages is for losses and expenses, such as lost earnings from time off work; pain medication costs, both for over the counter and prescription items; private physiotherapy costs, of which you are entitled to seek recovery of; and any other reasonable associated loss or cost to you.
Keep receipts or invoices for absolutely anything related so we can use this as evidence for the claim.
How much can a claim be worth?
If you suffering for a minimum of four weeks or so then the claim should be worth at least £1,000 – which is worth pursuing in my opinion. For most straightforward soft tissue, sprain, and ligament injuries that recover within a year, you’re looking at a top end bracket of around £5,000 according to official guidelines.
But as I said earlier it all depends on the impact it has personally had on you and your lifestyle, so payouts can vary depending on how badly you have been affected.
