What Is a Major Personal Injury?
A major personal injury is any serious injury that causes permanent disability, reduces a person’s quality of life, or results in death. These catastrophic injuries change your life forever and often require medical treatment, long-term care, and serious lifestyle adjustments.
In this guide
- What Qualifies as a Major Personal Injury?
- What Causes Severe Bodily Injuries?
- How to Start a Serious Injury Claim
- What Compensation Can You Get for a Catastrophic Injury in the UK?
- What Is a Major Personal Injury Average Compensation?
- Key Factors Affecting Serious Injury Compensation Payout
- How Compensation for Catastrophic Injury Differs from Minor Injuries
- How Claims Bible Can Help
When you sustain severe injuries, the compensation differs from when you only suffer minor wounds. This article answers the question: What is a major personal injury? We also discuss accidents where you can sustain these wounds and the average compensation.
Contact us at Claims Bible to calculate how much you can get as compensation for a personal injury.
What Qualifies as a Major Personal Injury?
A wound qualifies as a major personal injury if it results in a disability, permanently diminishes one’s quality of life, or causes death. Severe or catastrophic injuries fall under this category.
Unlike minor injuries that heal within weeks or months, major personal injuries have lasting effects. They can stop you from working, enjoying your hobbies, or living independently.
Below, we discuss the different types of wounds that can result in a major personal injury case.
Birth Injury
Birth injury refers to damage from excessive physical pressure during the birthing process. It happens during transit from the birth canal. Newborn babies often experience this type of injury.
Minor birth wounds heal without treatment, but more severe ones require medical intervention. Examples are nerve injuries, brain bleeding, perinatal asphyxia, subconjunctival hemorrhage, caput succedaneum, etc.
Amputation
Amputation is the loss or removal of a body part, like the toe, finger, hand, foot, arm, or leg. Most traumatic amputations result from motor vehicle accidents or industrial accidents. Traumatic injury accounts for 45% of all amputations.
A forceful accident impact may result in the cutting off of a body part, or a piece of machinery may crush it. Also, tissue destruction, infection, or disease affecting a particular body part that makes it impossible to treat or threaten a person’s life may result in an amputation.
This injury is life-altering as it affects your ability to move, work, interact with others, and live independently. Also, you may experience continuing pain, phantom limb phenomena, and emotional trauma, making it hard to recover.
Spinal Cord Injury
A spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves at the base of the spinal canal. This wound is quite severe, and it causes permanent changes in strength, body sensation, and other body functions below the injury site.
Spinal cord injury changes your life, affecting you mentally, socially, and emotionally. In addition, some SCI would lead to partial paralysis or complete paralysis with no use of body parts below the injury site. The risk of spinal cord injuries is why accident victims should get medical attention immediately after the occurrence.
Loss of Hearing and Sight
Generally, a person’s hearing and sight decline as they age. However, a sudden traumatic event can result in loss of vision, hearing, or both. For instance, a car accident results in a traumatic brain injury that affects the optic nerve or breaks the bone around the eyes.
As a result, the vehicle occupant may suffer a loss of sight. Similarly, shattered glass from a broken windshield can cut the cornea or eyelids. A person who slips and falls may also suffer a skull fracture or a perforated eardrum.
Another scenario is exposure to loud noise and harmful chemicals at work. Finally, loss of hearing or sight may be temporary or permanent.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
A traumatic brain injury is one of the most common sources of major personal injury cases. TBI results from a violent blow to the head. This could be from a shattered skull or a bullet.
A TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe. The latter often causes bruising, torn tissues, bleeding, and other physical damage to the brain. A traumatic brain injury can result in lifelong complications or death.
Nerve Damage
Occurrences like road accidents can cause nerve damage. This often results from compression, inflammation, and internal injuries. For example, you will likely experience nerve injury if you suffer from whiplash, a herniated disc, and a pinched nerve.
Most people do not know when they have a nerve injury because there are no physical signs like you’d see with a broken bone. However, watch out for symptoms like numbness, radiating pain, muscle weakness, tingling, or prickling.
Other severe wounds that give rise to a major personal injury claim include eye injury, facial wounds, paralysis, neurological damage, crush injury, etc. Thankfully, you can claim compensation for each of these wounds, and at Claims Bible, we can help you calculate the amount.
What Causes Severe Bodily Injuries?
There are several causes of severe/catastrophic bodily injuries. They include:
- Sports accidents
- Car accidents
- Workplace accidents
- Truck accident
- Motorcycle collisions
- Bicycle crashes
- Pedestrian accidents
- Boating accidents
- Fires and explosions
- Public place accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Falling from horseback
- Violent crime, etc.
When filing a claim for an injury resulting from any of the above, you must prove that another person’s negligence caused your injuries. In addition, you must show that the negligent party owed you a duty of care, breached the duty, the breach caused your wound, and you suffered damages.
Note that you must have suffered losses to file a valid claim. If you did not lose anything, there would be no compensation. This goes with the legal maxim that there must be a wrong for a remedy to apply.
How to Start a Serious Injury Claim
The process for starting a serious or major injury claim becomes manageable when you break it down into clear steps. Here’s what you need to do:
Keep Detailed Records
From the day of your accident, start keeping detailed records of everything related to your injury. This includes:
- All medical appointments and treatments
- Medication costs and prescriptions
- Travel expenses to medical facilities
- Days missed from work
- How your injury affect daily activities
- Physical and emotional symptoms you experience
- Any conversations with insurance companies or the other party
These records help establish the full impact of your injury on your life. They also make it easier to calculate your compensation accurately.
Contact a Personal Injury Solicitor
For major personal injury cases, it helps to work with an experienced solicitor. These claims are complex and involve large amounts of compensation, so having legal expertise on your side protects your interests.
A good solicitor will:
- Evaluate your case and advise on its strength
- Handle all communication with the other party and their insurers
- Gather additional evidence to support your claim
- Commission medical reports from independent experts
- Calculate the full value of your claim
- Negotiate the best possible settlement on your behalf
- Represent you in court if necessary
File Your Claim Within the Time Limit
In the UK, you have three years from the date of your accident (or from when you first realized you were injured) to start legal proceedings. This is called the limitation period. You might lose your right to claim compensation if you miss this deadline, no matter how strong your case is.
For children under 18, the three-year period doesn’t start until their 18th birthday, giving them until age 21 to make a claim. In cases involving brain injuries that affect mental capacity, the time limit may be extended.
Undergo an Independent Medical Examination
Your solicitor will arrange for you to see an independent medical expert who specializes in your type of injury. This doctor will examine you thoroughly and prepare a detailed report about:
- The nature and extent of your injuries
- The treatment you’ve received and will need in the future
- How long your recovery will take
- Any permanent disabilities or limitations
- The impact on your ability to work and live independently
- Your need for ongoing care, equipment, or home modifications
This medical evidence forms the foundation of your compensation claim. The insurance company will rely on this report when deciding how much to offer you.
Ready to start your serious injury claim? Our expert panel can review your case and tell you exactly what you need to do. Check if you have a valid claim now.
What Compensation Can You Get for a Catastrophic Injury in the UK?
Personal injury compensation aims to return you to the state you were before the accident. With that in mind, there are two major types of damages you can get from the at-fault party. They are known as special and general damages.
Special Damages
Special or economic damages cover the financial losses caused by the accident. It applies to losses that have a fixed dollar amount, making them quantifiable. Special damages are particularly essential in significant personal injury cases due to the nature of the wounds.
These injuries often require a lengthy hospital stay, medical equipment, house modifications, and future medical care. All these translate to thousands of pounds, and you may be unable to cover everything yourself. Even if you have health insurance, it might not be enough.
Also, your injury may keep you away from work temporarily or permanently. If you suffer a disability and can’t return to your previous employment, you might change occupations. Therefore, a judge or insurance company would consider all these when awarding compensation.
So, expect your settlement to include:
- Past, current, and future medical bills
- Costs of medical equipment
- Lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Therapy and vocational rehabilitation
If you suffered any property damage during the accident, your compensation would also cover it. In addition, when the victim dies, their relatives can request burial and funeral expenses. Our personal injury calculator considers all these when calculating your settlement.
General Damages
General or non-economic damages do not compensate you for financial losses. Rather, they consider the physical and psychological injuries caused by the occurrence. When dealing with catastrophic injuries, the pain is more than when you have a minor wound.
Also, you may feel depressed and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health challenges when faced with the reality of your new situation. The preceding is common when dealing with a wound that results in disability.
Furthermore, general damages cover the life experiences you will miss because of the wound. For example, if you enjoyed football or hiking and can no longer enjoy it because of an injury, you will receive compensation.
So, expect the settlement to factor in the following:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Diminished life quality
- Loss of consortium, etc.
What Is a Major Personal Injury Average Compensation?
The settlement received for a major personal injury case varies from one case to the next.
Generally, it depends on:
- The type of injury
- The treatment prescribed and the duration
- The need for surgical intervention, and
- The degree of pain and suffering.
Below, we look at different wounds and the average settlement amount:
- Birth Injury: The amount ranges from £150,000 to £12 million.
- Amputation: The settlement ranges from £36,520 to £300,000 and depends mainly on the affected body part.
- Spinal Cord Injury: The compensation varies from £240,000 to £380,000, depending on the nature of the disability.
- Traumatic Brain Injury: The settlement ranges from £250,000 to £350,000.
- Loss of Hearing and Sight: The compensation varies from £217,000 to £326,000 for total blindness and deafness.
- Nerve Damage: The settlement ranges from £91,090 to £160,980, especially when dealing with severe nerve root damage.
- Paralysis: The amount varies from £205,000 to £380,000, depending on the nature and extent of the paralysis.
Key Factors Affecting Serious Injury Compensation Payout
Certain factors are considered when calculating compensation for a major personal injury, including the following:
Severity of Your Injury
The more severe your injury, the higher your compensation. A catastrophic injury that leaves you permanently disabled will result in a much larger settlement than an injury you can recover from with treatment. Judges and insurers use the Judicial College Guidelines to assess injury severity.
Impact on Your Daily Life
Your compensation reflects how the injury affects your everyday activities. Can you still dress yourself, cook meals, or take care of personal hygiene? Do you need help with basic tasks that you used to do independently?
Major injuries that rob you of independence result in higher settlements. If you now need round-the-clock care, require a wheelchair, or depend on others for basic needs, this significantly increases your compensation.
The courts also consider your hobbies and interests. If you were an active person who enjoyed sports, hiking, or dancing, and your injury prevents these activities, you’ll receive compensation for this loss of enjoyment. The same applies if your injury stops you from participating in family activities or social events.
Age When Injured
Your age at the time of injury also matters in determining compensation. Younger victims typically receive higher settlements because they must live with their disability for many more years.
A 25-year-old who becomes paralyzed faces 50 to 60 years of living with their disability, requiring decades of medical care, equipment, and support. Compare this to a 65-year-old with the same injury, who may need support for 15 to 20 years. The younger person’s compensation needs to cover a much longer period.
Effect on Your Career
Major injuries often end careers or force people into lower-paying jobs. The compensation accounts for this financial impact in several ways.
First, you may receive payment for the wages you’ve already lost while recovering. This includes sick pay, bonuses, overtime, and any other employment benefits you missed out on.
Second, and more importantly for catastrophic injuries, you receive compensation for loss of future earning capacity. If you can never work again, your settlement may include an estimate of all the money you would have earned until retirement. Even if you can work but must change to a less demanding (and lower-paying) job, you may receive the difference in lifetime earnings.
For self-employed people and business owners, the calculation often includes lost profits, business opportunities, and the potential growth of their enterprise.
Medical Treatment Required
The more extensive your medical treatment, the higher your compensation. Major injuries typically require multiple surgeries, extended hospital stays, specialist consultations, and ongoing therapy.
Settlement often covers all past medical expenses, including:
- Emergency treatment and ambulance costs
- Hospital stays and surgical procedures
- Diagnostic tests like MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays
- Prescription medications
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Mental health counseling
- Medical equipment and mobility aids
More importantly, it also covers future medical needs. If you’ll require ongoing treatment, regular check-ups, medications for life, or additional surgeries, medical experts estimate these costs and include them in your claim. For catastrophic injuries, future medical costs often run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Home and Vehicle Modifications
Catastrophic injuries often mean your home needs changes. You might need:
- Wheelchair ramps and widened doorways
- Stairlifts or through-floor lifts
- Accessible bathroom with a walk-in shower or bath
- Ground floor bedroom if you can’t use stairs
- Accessible kitchen with lowered counters
- Handrails throughout the property
- Automated door systems
These modifications cost tens of thousands of pounds. Your compensation covers the full cost of making your home suitable for your new needs. In some cases, if modifications aren’t possible, it may even cover moving to a more suitable property.
Similarly, you might need a specially adapted vehicle with wheelchair access, hand controls, or other modifications. These costs are often included in the settlement.
Psychological Impact
Major injuries affect mental health, too. The trauma of the accident, the pain of recovery, and adjusting to disability often lead to psychological conditions like:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Depression and anxiety
- Sleep disorders
- Social isolation and withdrawal
- Loss of confidence and self-esteem
These mental health impacts are just as real as physical injuries, and you deserve compensation for them. Independent psychiatric experts assess your psychological condition and recommend appropriate treatment. Your settlement may include the cost of therapy, counseling, and medication.
The Judicial College Guidelines recognize psychological injuries as serious, with compensation for severe PTSD and depression ranging from £48,080 to £101,470.
Available Evidence
The strength of your evidence directly affects your settlement value. Strong, well-documented cases result in higher offers because the defendant knows you’re likely to win in court.
Good evidence includes:
- Clear accident reports from police or employers
- Photographs and videos of the accident scene
- Multiple witness statements
- Detailed medical records from respected specialists
- Expert reports on your prognosis and care needs
- Financial records proving your losses
Weak evidence gives insurance companies room to argue and reduce their offers. This is why gathering comprehensive evidence from the start is so important.
The Defendant’s Behavior
If the person who caused your injury acted with gross negligence or deliberate disregard for safety, you might receive punitive damages on top of your compensation. These damages punish outrageous behavior and deter others from acting similarly.
For example, if it were a road accident caused by a drunk driver, or an employer knowingly exposed you to dangerous conditions without protection, the court may award additional money to reflect the seriousness of their conduct.
How Compensation for Catastrophic Injury Differs from Minor Injuries
The entire approach to claims and compensation differs when dealing with a minor injury instead of a catastrophic one.
Minor injury claims are straightforward. They focus on medical bills you’ve already paid and wages you’ve lost while recovering. A report from your treating doctor is usually enough, and settlements typically happen within six to 12 months. You receive a single lump sum payment, and that’s the end of the matter.
Catastrophic injury claims are far more complex. They must account for a lifetime of needs, such as future medical care, ongoing therapy, home modifications, and decades of lost earnings. They also require medical experts to assess different aspects of your injury and map out every piece of equipment, treatment, and support you’ll need for the rest of your life.
Settlement takes much longer, often two to five years, because doctors need time to understand the full extent of your injuries. You might receive interim payments while waiting for the final settlement. You also have more payment options. Instead of just a lump sum, you can arrange structured settlements that pay out over time, protecting you from running out of money and offering tax advantages.
How Claims Bible Can Help
At Claims Bible, we understand that suffering a major personal injury changes everything. Your world turns upside down in an instant, and suddenly you’re facing medical treatments, financial worries, and an uncertain future. We’re here to make at least one part of this difficult time easier: getting the compensation you may be entitled to.
When you contact us, we match you with the most appropriate solicitor for your specific injury type. Someone who’s successfully handled cases similar to yours and knows exactly how to maximize your compensation.
We also understand that worrying about legal costs is the last thing you need when dealing with a catastrophic injury. That’s why all the solicitors on our panel work on a “no win, no fee” basis.
Start your claim now to get the compensation you may be entitled to. Our team is here to help you through every step of the process.
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