It’s very easy to dislocate your shoulder, and the damage that can be done can be extensive. Slip, trip and fall injuries, as well as manual handling injuries, are common ones that involve shoulder dislocations. Bike riders being knocked off their bike in a road accident can commonly cause dislocations too.
So what can you claim for and what kind of payouts can be expected for such injuries?
What makes up a claim
You can claim for General Damages and Special Damages. General Damages is compensation just for the pain, suffering, and loss of amenity caused. This can of course mean:
- Pain and suffering on an almost continual basis, with an uncomfortable lack of movement
- Difficulty with every days tasks such as eating, cooking, cleaning, dressing, washing etc
- Sleep disturbance from being unable to move and lie as freely and comfortably as you normally would
We will arrange for an appointment, usually with an Orthopaedic expert, that you can attend where a report will be provided that covers all of these kinds of things. We then use this, together with official guidelines and our extensive specialist experience, to value the claim for the injury alone.
Generally speaking, the more you suffer, the more we get for you.
Special Damages is for losses and expenses that we can then add on to the claim as well. This can include things like:
- Lost earnings from time off work
- Medication expenses and private treatment expenses – the requirement for physiotherapy is common with such injuries
- Travel expenses to and from appointments – assuming you can’t drive due to the injury means you can claim for taxi receipts or bus receipts etc
- Care and assistance claims – where we can claim back an amount on an hourly basis for all the help you need from friends and family
Claim Valuations
It’s all based on the individual circumstances. Official guidelines that we use to help us value claims say that dislocation injuries to the shoulder attract awards of around £9,100 to £13,700 using the ‘Serious’ category of the Shoulder Injuries section of the guidelines. This is for the injury alone, and it’s a rough guide as it all depends on the individual case.
What you need to do is make sure to instruct a specialist personal injury law firm like us to make sure you get the best payout possible. Most law firms are taking 25% at least for fees they can’t recover due to reforms from last year, and many are asking for upfront fees too.
We work very differently to other law firms and we will normally save you a lot of money – so call us for advice on 0800 634 75 75 today.
