How to Claim Compensation For a Brain Injury
How to Claim Compensation For a Brain Injury
I am Malcolm Underhill, a partner and solicitor at IBB Solicitors. I specialize in acting for those who’ve sustained traumatic brain injury. It may come as a surprise that something like three hundred thousand people each year enter our hospitals having suffered a traumatic head or brain injury. Equally surprising, perhaps, is the fact that one million people in the UK suffer with the long term effects of a brain injury.
Those figures may come as a surprise because we don’t see people with a brain injury. The changes are not so obvious to anybody. There may be a change of temperament, impulsivity, concentration, attention, short and long term memory, particularly difficulties in dealing with several threads of information at the same time. All this can make work very challenging, particularly when the difficulties the individual faces haven’t been communicated to an employer or the employer refuses to understand the full effects of a brain injury. And of course, if the employee is no longer able to perform at the same level as they did before the accident, then that may result in the employee losing their position all because they have sustained a traumatic brain injury that others do not understand. It is therefore important that the individual seeks advice and support very early. That advice and support should principally come from the health professionals. They would be able to advice on treatment and how to cope with those challenges.
What is the difference between a head injury and a brain injury?
As an accredited Brain Injury Specialist, a solicitor who regularly acts on behalf of those who have sustained a serious brain injury, I am frequently asked what’s the difference between a head injury and a brain injury. Perhaps the easiest way to explain the difference is to give an example. If you or I were to walk into a door and sustain a small cut above our eyebrow, then it would be no more than that, an injury to our head, there would be no damage to the brain. In contrast, if we sustained a fall at work, perhaps we were a passenger in a car, or perhaps we’d been assaulted, then we may well sustain a very serious brain injury.
The effects and consequences of a brain injury
The consequences of those brain injuries may be significant, may be profound. There may be loss of sight, smell, taste. There may be an effect on our ability to walk, to use our hands and arms. There may be a personality change, a behavioural change. All that is likely to make it very difficult indeed for someone to return to work. They may require twenty four hour care. In those circumstances where someone has suffered such a significant brain injury, at the fault of others, then they may well be entitled to damages, that is compensation.
Brain injury compensation claims
Compensation on its own doesn’t resolve the full effects of a head or brain injury but in part it may well enable an individual to get access to medical treatment that may not otherwise be available through the NHS.
Compensation isn’t just for the injury itself, it’s the losses. For example loss of earnings, fixed expenses, for example, lifelong care, aids and equipment and that would be substantial where there is a lifelong serious brain injury.
At the end of a case, there is a choice, either the damages that is the compensation which has agreed with the other side out of court or in rare cases is imposed by court, decided by a judge can be made by way of a lump sum cheque or in my view, more sensibly, a periodical payment, that is annual payments to cover those loses such as loss of earnings, an annual cost of care, year on year, year on year for however long someone lives so that they and their family can be absolutely sure that there will be sufficient monies to support them throughout their life.
If you, or someone else you know in your family has sustained a serious brain injury and would like further advice, then please do contact me, Malcolm Underhill at IBB Solicitors.
Brain Injury Recovery, Rehabilitation and Support
Please click here to view the video
As an accredited Brain Injury Specialist who regularly acts on behalf of those who have sustained a serious brain injury, I am aware of the strain of such an injury on an individual can put on not just that person but their family too. Therefore on a regular basis, I would refer people to Headway and particularly Headway South Bucks.
Contact our experienced brain injury solicitors
If you, or someone else you know in your family has sustained a serious brain injury and would like further advice, then please do contact me, Malcolm Underhill at IBB Solicitors. If you want to enquire about making a compensation claim, please contact us on 01895 207 835 or 01895 207 295. Alternatively, you can send an email with your name and contact information and brief details as to the nature of the accident and the injuries sustained to PI@ibblaw.co.uk and one of our team will be able to help you.
