A Guide To A £54,000 Payout For A Schoolboy Knee Injury

According to media reports, a schoolboy knee injury resulted in a compensation payout of £54,000. Whether you have been injured in a sporting accident that was not your fault, or you feel that your knee injury could have been avoided had a sports club taken better care of your health and safety, then you may be able to make a claim for compensation. In the sections below, we take you through some details pertaining to the above headline, explaining how the knee injury occurred and how the settlement was reached. We’ll also look at how you could make a claim for compensation if you have suffered a knee injury that was someone else’s fault, and how much compensation for a knee injury could be appropriate if you did make a claim. If you have any questions about this schoolboy knee injury or your own injury, you can get in touch with our team on 0333 000 0729. Otherwise, why not read more about this case below.

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How Did The Claimant Suffer Their Fractured Knee Injury?

Knee injury

Knee injury

The claimant suffered a disabling knee fracture while playing rugby, when his knee struck a protruding object that was on the field of play. While the schoolboy knee injury claim was disputed as to what could be considered a reasonable health and safety provision towards the player, a judge ruled in the claimant’s favour.

Sporting event organisers do have a duty of care towards those taking part in their events as well as spectators who go and watch such events. If they do not take care of their health and safety responsibilities, and someone suffers an injury as a result, then the organiser may be held liable for injuries sustained as a result of such negligence. This could, and did in this case, result in compensation payouts for knee injuries, or indeed any other type of injury that could be obtained as a result of a responsible party’s negligence.

What Circumstances Caused The Rugby Injury To Happen?

The circumstances behind the rugby injury that the claimant suffered were that a sharp broken part of a plastic marker for a cricket boundary was protruding from the ground, although this was said to be hidden by the grass. This was the item that the claimant suffered his disabling kneecap fracture on when he went in to make a try in a rugby match.

What Injury To The Knee Did The Claimant Suffer?

The claimant was said to have suffered a serious disabling fracture of the kneecap on his right knee during the accident. The allegedly promising ‘club level’ rugby player, who was only 16 at the time of injury, was left unable to play rugby at that level again.

Knee injuries could range widely in terms of their type and severity and could attract different knee injury compensation payouts as a result of this. If you were wondering how much compensation for a knee injury could be considered appropriate, we offer some insight on this later on down this page.

The schoolboy knee injury mentioned in this case study was a kneecap fracture. This could also be known as a patella fracture. Symptoms of this type of injury could include:

  • Bruising to the front of the knee
  • Swelling
  • Pain
  • Inability to walk

This type of injury is usually caused by some type of trauma to the front of the knee – in this case, being struck into a piece of plastic boundary. Unfortunately, there could be some complications that could relate to this type of knee injury, which may include damage to the patient’s tibia, or damage to the ligaments within the knee. There could also be damage to the femur.

How Common Are Knee Injuries When Playing Rugby?

As a high-impact fast-paced game, rugby is a game that does come with some risks of injury. While the upper body is often thought to be the part of the body that is the most at risk for rugby players, knee injuries obtained through playing rugby are not considered uncommon. With the fact that rugby players have to stop suddenly and change direction numerous times in a match, the risk of sprains or strains to the muscles within the body, and indeed the knees, could be considered to be fairly high. In addition to these injuries that could occur from one-off movements, there is also the risk of overuse injuries occurring as a result of playing rugby regularly.

According to a study published in July 2019, which analysed data concerning knee injuries within rugby league, there were 616.7 injuries reported per 1000 players, with the most common injuries being injuries to the medial collateral ligaments (416.7 incidents per 1000 rugby players) and meniscus/chondral injuries (416.7 incidents per 1000 rugby players). According to the study, the most likely cause of these types of injury was being the recipient of a tackle. Anterior cruciate ligament injuries were also reported, which were the injuries that took the most time, on average, to recover from.

Whatever type of knee injury you may have suffered, if you feel that someone else could be liable for the accident that caused your injuries, you may be able to claim compensation for them. If you would like an eligibility assessment for free, then do not hesitate to call us and we could assess your case to see if you could potentially have a claim for compensation.

How Was This Case Concluded?

While the case was heard in front a judge at Milton Keynes County Court, who ruled in favour of the claimant for his disabling knee fracture, and awarded the damages to the claimant, it is thought that the Rugby Football Club’s lawyers are appealing the decision, as they have stated that it would have taken a ‘fingertip search’ of the rugby pitch to find the item that caused the injury to the claimant. They argue that the duty of care towards the claimant was within reasonable expectations, and asking for such a pre-game check would have exceeded acceptable health and safety provision.

How Much Compensation For A Knee Injury Was The Claimant Awarded?

The claimant in this case was awarded damages of £54,000 for his rugby injury claim. It is not reported how much of this award included legal costs or special damages, or even if it did.

Compensation Calculator For Related Knee Injuries

If you are considering making your own claim for compensation for a knee injury you’ve suffered or a schoolboy knee injury on behalf of a child you’re responsible for, then you might be wondering how much compensation for a knee injury might be appropriate for your specific situation. In terms of assessing how much compensation you could receive, you’d have to undergo a medical assessment by an independent medical professional. Your claim would only be valued when this medical evidence was recorded and assessed, but there are also other factors involved in the knee injury compensation amounts you’d be looking to receive. While you might have found a personal injury claims calculator that asks you to input some details of your injury, etc, and then gives out a figure, this would only, again, be a rough estimate. Instead of including a calculator on this page, we have chosen to list some Judicial College guideline payout amounts for specific injuries relating to this case study.  We hope you find this useful. If, however, you’re not sure your injury has been included, then you could always call the team here at Legal Helpline for clarification.

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It would also be prudent for us to add that knee injury compensation payouts could also include compensation payouts for costs and losses relating to your injury, such as earning losses, travel, medical and care costs.

No Win No Fee Knee Injury Compensation Payouts

Now you may have learned a little more about making claims for knee injury compensation, you may have decided you’d like some assistance from a personal injury lawyer. Not only could a lawyer of this type build your case for compensation on your behalf, but they could also advise on any compensation offers you receive, to see whether you could fight for larger knee injury compensation payouts, or whether you might be wise to accept an offer of compensation from a liable party.

If you think obtaining the services of a personal injury solicitor would mean you’d have to pay them upfront, that would not necessarily be the case. If you choose a no win no fee solicitor, you would not have to pay their fees until your personal injury claim had resulted in a compensation settlement. At the beginning of the personal injury claims process, you would be required to sign a conditional fee agreement which would tell you how much – as a percentage – you’d be required to pay the lawyer as a success fee once your compensation had been paid out. If you are concerned that you would have no compensation left once the lawyer had taken their success fee, you might be relieved to know that by way of a government cap, the lawyer cannot demand any more than 25% of your total settlement as a fee. And, if they fail to win compensation for you for a valid claim, you would not have to pay their success fee.

How Legal Helpline Could Help If You Have Suffered A Fractured Kneecap

Would you like to know more about how Legal Helpline could help you if you find yourself in a similar situation to the claimant described in this case study, with a fractured kneecap, or another sports injury that could have been avoided? If so, then why not get in touch with us. Not only could we offer you a free-of-charge assessment of your position and eligibility to claim compensation, but we could also provide you with a personal injury lawyer who could have the capabilities required to fight for the maximum kneecap fracture compensation payout that your claim deserves. Whether you are making a claim for yourself or on behalf of a child you are responsible for, we could assess your case for compensation, and tell you whether you could be eligible to make a broken knee claim. If we think your claim could result in a compensation payout, we could also offer you the services of a no win no fee solicitor from our panel to help you.

Start Your Knee Injury Claim

It couldn’t be easier to get free, no-obligation support and advice from the team here at Legal Helpline . You can reach us on 0333 000 0729, email us on [email protected], or even use the contact form or live chat features on our site. We look forward to helping you, whether you’d like to know more about making a claim for a disabling knee fracture or wish to get started on a claim with assistance from one of our solicitors. We’re here to help.

Essential References

More Guidance On Knee Injury Claims – Our general guide on knee injuries might be of use if you are considering making a claim.

HSE – Sporting Club Safety -Here is what the HSE have to say about amateur sports club safety.

Safety Planning – HSE – Here you can read more information about planning for safety from the HSE.

Case source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045861/The-54-000-try-Teen-players-compensation-payout-sparks-calls-judges-live-realistic-world.html