Personal Injury Claims ???

middelberg_za

Hi Guys
Bit longwinded but here goes
Have just found out that my whiplash was in fact more serious than first thought, been back and forth to GP/Hospital complaining of neck pain for over two years now, but just fobbed off with its whiplash, turns out to be "posterior extrusion of disc material at C4-C5 level", the letter also explains that I have cervical disease at C4/5 and C5/6 Its likely that I had a degenerative change prior to the accident which caused my disc to prolapse,my consultant says that my prolapse was precipitated by 5 years.
Waiting for a follow up appointment now, looks like surgery, my solicitor has told me that even though my neck problems were never investigated properly I,m unable to claim against my local hospital because Im not in a worse position due to there negligence, whereas I believe that if they found this problem 2 years ago, by now I woud have had the op and hopefully have been fully recovered.
IMHO they have cost me 2 years of pain and suffering by not checking my
neck injuries properly what do you guys make of it

middelberg_za

middelberg_za wrote: »

Hi Guys
Bit longwinded but here goes
Have just found out that my whiplash was in fact more serious than first thought, been back and forth to GP/Hospital complaining of neck pain for over two years now, but just fobbed off with its whiplash, turns out to be "posterior extrusion of disc material at C4-C5 level", the letter also explains that I have cervical disease at C4/5 and C5/6 Its likely that I had a degenerative change prior to the accident which caused my disc to prolapse,my consultant says that my prolapse was precipitated by 5 years.
Waiting for a follow up appointment now, looks like surgery, my solicitor has told me that even though my neck problems were never investigated properly I,m unable to claim against my local hospital because Im not in a worse position due to there negligence, whereas I believe that if they found this problem 2 years ago, by now I woud have had the op and hopefully have been fully recovered.
IMHO they have cost me 2 years of pain and suffering by not checking my
neck injuries properly what do you guys make of it

Is there anybody there ?

Crazy_Jamie

I think your solicitor is probably right. There are two potential issues with going after the hospital for negligence. The first is that proving negligence in such circumstances is rarely straightforward. The standard is enshrined in what's called the Bolam test, which I'm not going to go in to, but suffice to say that the mere fact that they've missed the cervical disease (even over two years) is not sufficient in itself to show negligence. You need more than that, and whether or not you can show it depends on the specific facts. It's often a difficult standard to reach.

The second reason is that the pain and suffering from the failure to diagnose flows naturally from the accident anyway due to the degenerative change, which means that you will likely be able to recover compensation for that from the original party that caused you injury when the car hit you. That's what your solicitor means when they say that you're not any worse off. The doctors haven't caused you damage; it's the original party that caused it, and just because they failed to spot it it doesn't make them liable. It is possible that they could be liable in negligence is shown and it is adjudged to be an intervening act which breaks the chain of causation. However, this is something that you should really wait for the other side to bring up, because as it stands you'll recover from them anyway for this two years of pain. This is doubly so because your solicitor doesn't seem to think that it is worth going after the doctors. So either way don't get too hung up on the doctors' negligence. You'll still recover from the other party for those two years of pain and suffering because ultimately they have caused the degenerative change, so focus on them.

I was trying to explain the issues in that last paragraph as much in layman's terms as I could, but if anything isn't clear then by all means let me know and I'll try to explain further.

taylor72

Hi, i'm after advise please. About three weeks ago I tripped and fell , due to bad workmanship by BT - a hole they were supposed to fill but didn't. I called BT and the said they would get it repaired - they have now done this, but this morning I received a personal injur claim form from them - I didn't ask fo one. I'm not sure whether to bin it, or fill in and wait and see - my injuries are minor to be honest - neck is still stiff and hurts but time will heal, lwer back pain and lower right hand side pain in back - apparently muscle strain, I am on painkillers and due to see osteopath tomorrow to make it all better! I'm not part of any compo culture so I'm really not sure how to play this.

Syman

fill it in and send it, what have you got to lose?

If you are unsure, go to your local Citizens advice.

In fact, having read this post through ( and there is a lot of very good advice here) i do not recall seeing the CAB montioned.

They offer a free advisory service and i have found them very helpful.

Crazy_Jamie

taylor72 wrote: »

Hi, i'm after advise please. About three weeks ago I tripped and fell , due to bad workmanship by BT - a hole they were supposed to fill but didn't. I called BT and the said they would get it repaired - they have now done this, but this morning I received a personal injur claim form from them - I didn't ask fo one. I'm not sure whether to bin it, or fill in and wait and see - my injuries are minor to be honest - neck is still stiff and hurts but time will heal, lwer back pain and lower right hand side pain in back - apparently muscle strain, I am on painkillers and due to see osteopath tomorrow to make it all better! I'm not part of any compo culture so I'm really not sure how to play this.

That's interesting. I've not heard of companies actually sending out claim forms to people when the person would be making a claim against them. I can see the potential benefit to it for the company, though. What does this claim form have on it, and what does it ask you to do? Once you send it in what does it say will actually happen? The decision on whether or not to claim compensation is your own. People have lots of prejudices against the 'compensation culture' in this country, but the reality is that such views are largely based on ignorance. If you have been injured by someone else's negligence there is nothing inherently wrong in claiming compensation. You're exercising a legal right, and that legal right is one that exists for entirely legitimate reasons.

Syman wrote:

In fact, having read this post through ( and there is a lot of very good advice here) i do not recall seeing the CAB montioned.

That's generally because going to the CAB is not usually necessary with personal injury claims due to conditional fee agreements being in place. When it is effectively free to use a solicitor, most people will cut out the middle man and go straight for that. Though on a side point I do remember some members on this forum recommending not going to the CAB for personal injury advice. I'm not entirely sure why (I seem to remember that there were reasons but my memory is hazy on it), though last I checked the CAB don't often give PI advice. The percentage of cases that they deal with that are based on PI is, last I checked, well under 1%.

middelberg_za

Just a quick update, after countless trips to the dentist and three back teeth removed it was found that I had broken my jaw in the accident also, only found after 18 months of what I thought was toothache !

I returned to work on light duties for almost 10 months until one evening I took off my jacket and PING something went amiss with my shoulder/collarbone no feeling in my left arm or hand only a burning sensation, Doctors think its Complex Regional Pain Syndrome now on 20 pills a day trying to tame the pain.

Back to hospital in a weeks time to see if an operation will help, my solicitor
is chasing the other insurers for an interim payment, and is going to arrange a consultation with a barrister in early January.

The solicitor will not even give me a ball park figure as to how much this claim is worth, never been particularly money orientated but need a decent payment to look after wife and three daughters, really worried feel like my future has been taken out of my hands, my employer wont keep me much longer (which is understandable ) any of you guys out there care to have an educated guess as to how much we,ll receive ?

Crazy_Jamie

Unfortunately the advice in my first post to you still stands; this is clearly a significant injury, which has now taken a turn for the worse with the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. What I can say at this stage is that any clear out of pocket expenses that you've lost as a result of this are recoverable, which includes the obvious (and probably significantly) losses associated with loss of earnings and such. The idea of interim payments is that it helps to keep you going whilst the claim is resolved, and in the near future that's what you should be keeping your eye on. Have the other side agreed to an interim payment?

middelberg_za

Thanks for the reply, the other side havent agreed to an interim payment as yet, I,ve had to send almost 3 years bank statements for there perusal.
My solicitor says they are an extremely unorganised bunch, and have a serious attitude problem ! she thinks that she may have to issue proceedings sooner rather than later to get any sense out of these people. Is thie usual practice ?

middelberg_za

Thanks for the reply, the other side havent agreed to an interim payment as yet, I,ve had to send almost 3 years bank statements for there perusal.
My solicitor says they are an extremely unorganised bunch, and have a serious attitude problem ! she thinks that she may have to issue proceedings sooner rather than later to get any sense out of these people. Is thie usual practice ?