Our experienced team deals daily with highly complex cases, supporting individuals and families to rebuild their lives and find new futures after a serious injury.
Serious injury claims, also known as catastrophic injury claims, are those involving life changing injury. That can include amputation, loss of sight, broken bones, head and spinal injuries, birth injuries and other severe events that have a lasting impact.
Serious injury has long term impacts on the quality of life not just of the injured adult or child but those around them too. It often affects a person’s ability to earn and work and can impact heavily on family and relationships.
Where your injury resulted from the negligence or actions of someone else, our serious injury solicitor team is here to help you claim the compensation you need to move forward. This could be because of medical negligence or a personal injury.
We have relationships with medical experts, case managers and rehabilitation specialists who can advise on and help you access treatments and equipment intended to improve your life. Our role is to connect you to that help and ensure you have the means to access it.
We take the time to understand you, your situation and needs and to help you to take back control of your life.
We’re here to support you from the moment we take on your claim for as long as you need us.
ABOUT – SERIOUS INJURY LAW
Our solicitors are specialists in supporting people throughout the claims process and ensuring they get settlements and interim payments that consider all their future and current needs. That can include ongoing care, support, rehabilitation, specialist equipment to enable you to live a full life and continue to pursue interests, home adaptations and so on.
Every claim, individual and circumstance is different, but our experience allows us to ask the right questions, hear what you’re telling us and do all we can to ensure your specific needs are met.
We’re here to ensure that you are aware of and can access the specialist support and equipment you’ll need to go on to live a full and varied life.
WHAT OUR SERIOUS INJURY LAWYERS DO?
Having an extensive, specialist and highly experienced team of serious injury lawyers means that we have a deep understanding of the types of support requirements that may lay ahead following your injury. It’s our job to ensure all of your requirements are considered and evidenced to get the right settlement to allow you to live a full life, despite your injury.
We work with you and experts in care, rehabilitation and home adaptation to ensure that every aspect of your injury is treated.
If your home is now unsuitable, we can help you find one that meets your requirements and coordinate any work which needs to be done before it’s right for you to live in.
A case manager can be appointed to make sure your care and rehabilitation is working the way it should and offer the support you need.
HOW MUCH COMPENSATION CAN I CLAIM FOR A SERIOUS INJURY?
Serious injuries can have far reaching impacts on your life and compensation payments may be extremely substantial depending on the level of trauma you have suffered and future needs you may have.
Serious injury compensation can amount to thousands or even millions of euros. A claim, or damages award, is generally made up of two elements: General damages and special damages.
GENERAL DAMAGES
This is an amount of compensation for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
Guidelines and the amounts awarded in previous cases inform how much can be awarded for this element. Within general damages no specific costs are being recouped, rather it is acknowledgement of what you have been through and how you may continue to suffer.
IS THERE A TIME LIMIT FOR SERIOUS INJURY CLAIMS?
There is generally a two-year time limit in which a claim must be brought but there are exceptions.
Examples of differing time limits are if the case involves a child, someone with diminished mental capacity or the serious injury was incurred abroad.
In cases involving children, including birth injuries, claimants usually have until the child is aged 21.
For someone who does not have the mental capacity to make legal decisions there is no time limit in which a claim must be made.
Where a fatality has occurred, families can make a claim within three years of the death or the post-mortem result.
Victims of violent crime making claims from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme may have a shorter deadline.
Where injury incidents occurred outside of the Ireland there may also be differing timescales.
If you think you may have a claim, speaking to a solicitor is the best course of action for advice on time limits in your particular case.
Bringing a claim early is beneficial because, where fault is accepted, interim payments may be negotiated to support with immediate costs and expenses even whilst a claim is ongoing.
SPECIAL DAMAGES
Special damages are unique to each individual person and case and are the costs associated with an injury that a specific figure can be put against.
This may include house adaptations, specialist equipment, loss of earning capacity, short and long term medical expenses.
Gaining the maximum amount of compensation to ensure you can go on to live a full and varied life after your injury requires a skilled serious injury lawyer who has an understanding of and can factor in and account for the things you’re likely to need in the future in order to build them into your claim.
HOW MUCH COMPENSATION CAN I CLAIM FOR A SERIOUS INJURY?
Generally speaking the more complex your injuries the longer a compensation claim is likely to take to settle, due in part to the need to ensure your long term needs are fully understood and compensation fully covers them.
Other factors, such as disputed liability, will also delay settlement of a claim for damages. Liability is, essentially, admitting being at fault. If the person who caused your accident will accept that it was their actions that led to your injury, it makes the claims process simpler. If they are denying being the cause of the accident, we will need to work with you, and our experts, to prove that they are not telling the truth.
Serious injury claims usually take at least a year to settle but the process often takes several years.
In a case where liability is accepted there is still likely to be the need for medical assessments by one or more experts. They will need to assess the physical and psychological impacts of your injuries, to what extent the opponent was responsible for your situation and what future needs you may have.
In some cases treatment needs to be tried and outcomes assessed to understand the full extent of your claim.
It’s vital to go through this process thoroughly to ensure that when a settlement is agreed it considers everything that you may need. It is usual for settlements to be made on a ‘full and final’ basis, meaning no further claim can be made for the same injury. Therefore your need must not be underestimated otherwise you could be under-compensated.
Interim payments may be possible to help with medical and living costs whilst a settlement is negotiated.
