How much will I get for my injuries?

This is unsurprisingly one of the most common questions that we get asked as equine lawyers specialising in personal injury claims. The answer is always dependent upon the facts of each specific case and as equine solicitors we need to see the medical reports to comment accurately.

There is no tariff as such (other than in criminal injuries compensation claims) although there are guidelines that are used to assist in valuing injuries. The book many lawyers use as a starting point is called the Judicial College Guidelines to the Assessment of General Damages, currently in its 12th edition. A new edition is released every two years or so and considers the range of awards of damages made by the courts of England and Wales for different categories of injuries and effectively come up with appropriate brackets of compensation depending upon the type of injury, its severity, the duration of symptoms and the effect on the injured person’s life.

There are chapters on paralysis, head injuries, psychiatric damage, sensory injuries, internal organ injuries, orthopaedic injuries, facial injuries and scarring in addition to some more minor types of injury.

However things get slightly complicated when a Claimant has sustained multiple injuries as one does not simply add the value of the injuries together as the pain, suffering and loss of amenity is shared to a degree across multiple injuries.

There are no hard and fast rules and ultimately if the parties cannot agree a judge can decide what he/she wishes to award at his/her discretion.