Boyes Turner’s spinal injury solicitors secured a £3.25 million compensation settlement and £130,000 of funded rehabilitation for a young man who suffered a spinal cord injury (SCI) whilst working on his family’s farm. Spinal injury caused by falling hay bale on family farm Our client was taking hay from bales which had been incorrectly stacked when he was struck on the back by a falling bale. He suffered spinal fractures and cord compression (T11, L2) resulting in incomplete SCI. His injuries left him with impaired mobility in his legs. He regained the ability to walk but will need lifelong therapeutic support, including orthotics and physiotherapy. Making a claim against the farm’s insurers Our client’s family contacted us and we advised them that we could help the young man obtain compensation for his injuries and rehabilitation to maximise his recovery. We would do this by helping him make a claim for compensation for the injuries he suffered as a result of working in an unsafe environment on the farm. The claim would be made against his father's company, which owned and was responsible for the farm, but would be handled on his father’s behalf by his insurers. The farm’s management records revealed that there had been breaches of Health & Safety Executive (HSE) farm safety guidelines relating to safe and stable stacking of bales and risk assessments. We pursued our client’s claim on the basis that there was evidence that the bales had been stacked incorrectly, leaving our client at increased risk of foreseeable injury from falling bales. We received a full admission of liability from the farm’s insurers. Injured farm worker receives £130,000 of funded rehabilitation We secured the insurers’ agreement to work with us to prioritise our client’s recovery through rehabilitation. We instructed a case manager to prepare an immediate needs assessment (INA) and secured approximately £130,000 of funded rehabilitation for our client, including specialist SCI treatment (nerve stimulators, orthotics to improve stability and mobility), intense in-patient spinal injury rehabilitation, private urology treatment for bladder and bowel issues, and access to a psychological assessment and support worker. We also arranged vocational rehabilitation for our client, as the injury affected his ability to carry out physical work, including his future aspirations as a property developer. The insurers paid directly for our client’s rehabilitation under the Rehabilitation Code. We secured interim (advance) payments of £150,000 to meet our client’s urgent needs whilst we worked closely with him, his family and our experts to assess the lifelong impact of his SCI injury and disability, to enable us to value the claim. £3.25 million compensation settlement without court proceedings We had worked collaboratively with the farm’s insurers and solicitor throughout our client’s rehabilitation and recovery and our valuation of the claim. Shortly before our client’s limitation deadline, we agreed to meet with them and our client at a joint settlement meeting (JSM), and negotiated an out-of-court settlement. The settlement provides our client with £3.25 million compensation, in addition to the £130,000 rehabilitation he has already received. His compensation will enable him to buy a suitable home, pay for ongoing physiotherapy and orthotics, whilst providing financial security for his future. Our client kindly commented, “I can’t thank you enough. You really have changed my life.” If you have suffered serious injury in an accident at work, on the road or on public or commercial premises, you can find out more about how we can help you obtain rehabilitation and compensation by contacting our specialist solicitors.
