Spinal Injury Claim – Am I Eligible To Make One?

Have you suffered an injury to your back in an accident that wasn’t your fault? Are you wondering whether you may be eligible for compensation? In this guide, we aim to answer everything you need to know about making a spinal injury claim.

We start by explaining what a spinal injury is and the eligibility requirements your case must meet in order to claim for one. Following this, we share how your personal injury compensation may be calculated and how long you have to begin a claim.

Additionally, we discuss the types of evidence that could help support your personal injury claim. We end this guide by discussing how a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you.

Contact our advisors today with any questions you may have about starting a personal injury compensation claim:

A woman bent over holding her back in pain.

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What Is A Spinal Injury?

There are a number of different spinal injuries you could suffer in an accident. Some examples include:

  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Cervical disc injuries
  • Dislocations
  • Fractures
  • Crush injuries

Spinal injuries could cause varying degrees of discomfort and pain. In some serious cases, they could even cause paralysis.

If you have suffered a back injury and it wasn’t your fault, continue reading our guide to see if you could make a spinal injury claim. You can also call our advisors to discuss your case.

Can I Make A Spinal Injury Claim?

If you can prove that your injuries were caused by someone else’s negligent actions, you may be able to make a spinal injury claim.

Therefore, the eligibility requirements your case must meet are:

  1. Someone owed you a duty of care
  2. They breach this duty
  3. This caused you to suffer a spinal injury

There are various types of accidents that could occur if the duty of care owed to you is breached. We have laid out some examples below:

Accidents at Work

Every employer owes their employees a duty of care to to take reasonable steps and actions to keep them safe whilst working. This is outlined within The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 

An example of how a spinal injury may occur in an accident at work includes:

  • Your employer has provided you with no manual handling training. This causes you to suffer a slipped disc in your back when trying to lift a box that is too heavy.

Accidents Public Places

The party in control of a public place (the occupier) has a duty of care to keep you reasonably safe while you are visiting that space. This is outlined in with the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.

An example of how a spinal injury may occur in a public place accident includes:

  • A restaurant fails to clean up or display a sign for a spillage that they were aware of. This causes you to slip on the wet floor and suffer a serious soft tissue injury in your back.

Road Traffic Accidents

Each road user owes a duty of care to one another to use the roads in a safe manner to avoid causing accidents. Road users must abide by The Road Traffic Act 1988 and The Highway Code to abide by this duty of care.

An example of how a spinal injury may occur in a road traffic accident includes:

  • A taxi driver is distracted by their phone and fails to notice that traffic has come to a stop at a red light. This causes them to crash into the back of your car, and you suffer a serious spinal injury.

To see whether you may be eligible to make a spinal injury claim, you can contact our advisors.

A doctor examining a scan of a spine

How Much Compensation Could My Spinal Injury Be Worth?

Compensation for a successful spinal injury claim could be awarded under two heads of loss: general and special damages.

General damages are awarded for your injuries and the pain and suffering they have caused you.

The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) may be used to help those responsible for valuing your claim. This is a document that contains compensation guidelines for different injuries.

We have listed some that are relevant to spinal injuries in the table below. However, please note that the first entry has not come from the JCG.

InjurySeverityNotesCompensation guidelines
Multiple severe injuries with special damagesSevereMultiple severe injuries have been suffered. Compensation is also awarded for special damages.Up to £1,000,000+
ParalysisTetraplegia (also known as Quadriplegia)The higher end of this bracket is applicable to cases where physical pain is present and involving significant brain damage.£396,140 to £493,000
ParaplegiaAge, life expectancy, degree of independence and extent of pain can all affect how much is awarded.£267,340 to £346,890
Back injurySevere (i)Severe damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots, leading to a combination of very serious consequences not normally found in cases of back injury.£111,150 to £196,450
Severe (ii)Injuries involving nerve root damage with associated loss of sensation and impaired mobility. £90,510 to £107,910
Severe (iii)Disc fractures or disc lesions leading to chronic conditions.£47,320 to £85,100
Moderate (i)The lumbar vertebrae has suffered a compression/crush fracture£33,880 to £47,320
Moderate (ii)Injuries could include a prolapsed disc that requires a laminectomy or results in repeated relapses.£15,260 to £33,880
Minor (i)Within 2 to 5 years a full recovery takes place without surgery.£9,630 to £15,260

Special damages are not always awarded following a successful claim, as these compensate you for the financial losses caused by your injury. For example, if you needed to take time off work to recover, you may have expereinced a loss of earnings.

You would need to prove these lost earnings with documents such as payslips.

Examples of other financial losses you could claim for could include:

  • Medical expenses, such as prescription fees
  • Care costs
  • Travel expenses
  • Home adaptation costs

To see what financial losses you may be able to claim for as part of your spinal injury claim, you can contact our advisors.

How Long Do I Have To Make A Spinal Injury Claim?

All personal injury claims need to be started within 3 years of the accident taking place. This time limit is outlined in The Limitation Act 1980,

There are some exceptions to the limitation period, such as:

  • The claimant is a minor –  the child will be unable to make their own claim until their 18th birthday, from which the 3-year time limit will run.
  • The claimant lacks the mental capacity – the time limit in this instance is suspended indefinitely unless the person regains this capacity. In this instance, they will have 3 years to begin their own claim from the date of recovery.

In both cases where the claimant is unable to make their own claim, a litigation friend could make one on their behalf.

Contact our advisors today to see whether you still have enough time to begin your spinal injury claim.

A construction worker bent over holding their back in pain

What Evidence Can Help In Spinal Injury Claims?

When making a spinal injury claim, it is important that you have enough evidence as possible to support your case. This evidence needs to show how your accident occurred, who was responsible and what injuries you suffered.

Some examples of evidence you could gather include:

  • CCTV footage, dashcam footage or any other video footage that shows your accident.
  • Photographs of the accident site or your visible injuries.
  • The contact information of any witnesses. as they could be approached for a statement.
  • Any relevant reports, such as an accident report from the workplace accident book.
  • Medical records detailing your injury and treatments.

Contact our advisors today to see if a solicitor from our panel could help you with your case.

How Can A Spinal Cord Injury Solicitor Help Me?

Whilst it is not essential that you instruct a solicitor for your spinal injury claim, it is advised.

Our panel of solicitors have years of experience working on personal injury claims and could help you with:

  • Gathering evidence
  • Corresponding with the defendant
  • Negotiating your settlement
  • Explaining legal jargon

If you have any questions or queries about working with a solicitor on our panel, you can contact a member of our advisory team.

Can I Claim For A Serious Spinal Injury On A No Win No Fee Basis?

The solicitors on our panel work on a No Win No Fee basis, specifically under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under this arrangement, you will not need to pay for your solicitor’s work:

  • Upfront
  • As the claim progresses
  • At all if the claim fails

However, you will need to pay them a success fee if your claim succeeds. This fee is a percentage (which is legally limited) taken from your compensation.

To see whether a solicitor on our panel could help you with your spinal injury claim, contact our team today:

A solicitor working on a spinal injury claim

More Useful Resources About Making Personal Injury Claims

Learn more about other personal injury claims we could help you with:

External resources:

Thank you for reading this guide on how to make a spinal injury claim.