A Guide To Making A Serious Neck Injury Claim

This guide discusses how to make a serious neck injury claim. Neck injuries, including those that affect the spinal cord, can inflict significant damage, affecting your quality of life. You may have grounds to make a personal injury claim and seek compensation for the way your injury affected you, if it was caused by a third party breaching the duty of care they owed you. However, we will discuss the eligibility criteria in more detail as we move through this guide.

serious neck injury claim

How To Make A Serious Neck Injury Claim

As well as explaining the eligibility criteria required for a personal injury claim, the guide will go into detail about the third parties who owe you a duty of care on the road, at work or in a public place. We also provide examples of how a breach of this duty could result in an accident that causes you to sustain a neck injury.

Furthermore, this guide will discuss the compensation you could be awarded following a successful claim, and the evidence you could gather to strengthen your case.

Finally, this guide will note the benefits of working with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel who has experience handling serious injury claims. 

Our dedicated advisors are on hand to provide free guidance if you have any questions whilst or after reading, so please do not hesitate to:

Select A Section

  1. Who Could Make A Serious Neck Injury Claim?
  2. How Could You Sustain Serious Neck Injuries?
  3. Evidence Supporting Your Serious Neck Injury Claim
  4. What Payout Could You Receive For A Successful Serious Neck Injury Claim?
  5. Start Your No Win No Fee Claim With A Serious Injury Solicitor

Who Could Make A Serious Neck Injury Claim?

Certain eligibility criteria must be met for a personal injury claim to be valid. This means you need to show:

  • A third party owed you a duty of care;
  • They breached this duty of care;
  • This breach led to an accident which caused you physical and/or mental harm.

The above criteria lay the basis of negligence in claims for a personal injury. If you have evidence of negligence occurring, it may be possible for you to seek compensation by making a serious neck injury claim.

Limitation Periods For Your Claim

The Limitation Act 1980 states that a claimant generally has three years from the accident date to start their personal injury claim. However, exceptions can be made to this limitation period in certain circumstances.

Our advisors are on hand to give more information on the possible exceptions to the time limit, as well as to discuss your eligibility to claim, so why not get in touch using the number above.

How Could You Sustain Serious Neck Injuries?

As we have mentioned, there are several third parties who owe you a duty of care, including employer’s, road users, and those in control of a public space. The following sections look at the different legislation that outlines each of these parties’ duty of care. They also provide examples of how this duty could be breached leading to a serious neck injury.

When Could You Claim For Road Traffic Accidents?

The Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code set out rules that road users need to follow. Doing so will help road users to uphold their duty of care, which is to navigate the road in a way that protects themselves and others from harm or damage.

If they don’t uphold their duty of care, it could result in a road traffic accident. For example, a driver could sustain a neck injury in a car accident after being hit in a side-collision due to the other driver failing to check their mirrors when changing lanes. The neck injury may cause damage to the spinal cord and result in paralysis.

When Could You Claim For Work-Related Accidents?

Employers owe a duty of care to their employees under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. According to Section 2 of the Act 1974, employers must take reasonably practicable steps to keep employees safe from harm at work, and while they carry out their work-related duties. Such steps could include:

  • Providing personal protective equipment where necessary, and free of charge.
  • Performing regular risk assessments.
  • Giving correct training.

A failure to uphold their duty of care could result in a workplace accident. For example, an employee is not provided any training to operate a forklift truck. As a result, they crash into another employee causing them both to sustain a serious neck injury that leads to some brain damage.

When Could You Claim For Public Accidents?

The party who has control over a public space must adhere to their duty of care as laid out Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. They must take steps to ensure the reasonable safety of visitors to the premises. 

An example of a breach of this duty can include where a person has tripped and fallen on a loose manhole cover that was reported but not fixed in reasonable time. After falling in the street and landing heavily on their neck, the injured person suffers paralysis.

Not every accident is the result of a third party’s breach of care. Our advisors can assess your specific accident to see if you could make a serious neck injury claim, so just give the team a call on the number above if you would like to chat.

Evidence Supporting Your Serious Neck Injury Claim

An important part of the personal injury claims process is gathering evidence. Relevant proof will highlight a breach of third-party’s duty of care, as well as the injuries caused as a result. You could collect, for example:

  • Footage from a dash cam or CCTV.
  • Photographs showing the accident scene and/or visible injuries.
  • Witness contact information.
  • Any medical records showing the injuries you sustained.
  • A diary documenting your symptoms and treatments.
  • Official reports, such as one provided by the police or logged in a workplace accident book.

Helping to gather and present evidence is one of the services our panel of solicitors can provide. To learn more about how they could assist you in making a serious neck injury claim, please call our team.

What Payout Could You Receive For A Successful Serious Neck Injury Claim?

If you make a successful serious injury compensation claim, you could receive a settlement comprising of up to two heads of loss; special and general damages.

Special damages compensate for financial losses incurred due to injuries, such as loss of earnings, travel expenses, and care costs. Evidence, such as receipts, travel tickets and payslips, can help prove any losses.

General damages compensate for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries, as well as the overall impact on your quality of life. Solicitors can use different resources to help them value this head of claim, including medical evidence and the Judicial College Guidelines.

This document contains guideline compensation brackets for different injuries. You can find some of these in the table below. However, please only use these as a guide because settlements do vary depending on the specific nature of each case.

Compensation Table

INJURYCOMPENSATIONNOTES
Severe Neck Injury With Other Serious InjuriesUp to £1,000,000+A severe neck injury, with other serious injuries and compensation for special damages for any financial losses.
Paralysis£324,600 to £403,990Cases of quadriplegia where both legs and arms are paralysed.
Paralysis£219,070 to £284,260Cases of paraplegia where the legs are paralysed.
Moderately Severe Brain Damage£219,070 to £282,010The person has a very serious disability which is either cognitive or physical.
Severe Neck Injury (i)In the region of £148,330A neck injury associated with incomplete paraplegia or causing permanent spastic quadriparesis.
Severe Neck Injury (ii)£65,740 to £130,930Serious fractures or cervical spine disc damage which cause disabilities of a considerable severity.
Loss of earningsUp to £100,000 and aboveCompensation you could seek to cover lost earnings caused by injury-induced absence from work, whether it is temporary or permanent.

Call an advisor for further information on personal injury settlements and how much you could be awarded following a successful serious neck injury claim.

Start Your No Win No Fee Claim With A Serious Injury Solicitor

Our panel of solicitors have experience handling personal injury claims and can offer their helpful services under the terms of a specific kind of No Win No Fee contract. There are different types, but the one they offer is called a Conditional Fee Agreement. Typically, under the terms of this contract, you won’t pay for the work provided by your solicitor:

  • Upfront;
  • During the process;
  • If the claim fails.

At the end of a successful claim, your solicitor will take a legally-capped percentage directly from the compensation you receive. This is their success fee. The cap is applied by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 and ensures you keep most of your compensation.

Contact Us To Learn More About Making A Claim

After reading this guide, if you have any other questions about making a serious neck injury claim, please don’t hesitate to contact an advisor. They can provide further guidance on anything you’re still unsure about, and if they find your case is valid, they could connect you with a solicitor from our panel.

To get in touch, you can:

Further Information On Serious Injury Claims

Here are some more useful guides related to this subject:

For helpful resources, see below:

We hope this guide on how to make a serious neck injury claim has helped. However, if you have any other queries, please contact an advisor using the number above. 

Written by EM

Edited by MMI