Compensation

If you are successful in your claim and you are awarded damages the compensation will be made up of 2 components: general damages and special damages.

General damages

This is the portion of your compensation which is awarded for your pain; suffering and what lawyers call "loss of amenity" or loss of enjoyment of life.  This takes account of the physical and mental effects your injury has had on you and also the limitations it has placed on your everyday life.   General damages deal with the non-financial consequences of your injury

The level of award received in each claim is based on other similar cases previously decided at court and guidelines published to help solicitors judge the range of awards for your type of injury. 

Special damages 

These are awarded for the financial losses and expenses you have incurred and are likely to incur in the future as a result of your injury.  These vary from case to case but may include: 

• future loss of earnings until retirement
• the cost of  any nursing care you have needed in the past and may need in the future
• the cost of private treatments such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy  and speech and language therapy
• the cost of purchasing and/or adapting suitable accommodation
• the cost of specialist aids and equipment

Compensation Culture

Despite what the media would have us think, we do not have a compensation culture in England and Wales.  If anything, fewer claims are currently being made at court than in the past. 

It is important to remember that only if treatment is found to be incompetently performed that a claim will succeed.  No compensation will be awarded if the health professionals are shown to have performed their job correctly and to have done everything that an ordinary professional of their experience would have done. 

Email our clinical negligence team.