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Children and teenagers who suffer serious, permanent injuries can be left with lifelong disability which will affect their ability to learn, work, look after themselves and live independently. They may find it harder to walk or get around, to behave appropriately, or communicate clearly with others. They may find it more difficult to make friends, enjoy sport or leisure activities.
Child and teenage compensation claims often arise from injuries caused by:
They can also happen within Road Traffic accidents, with situations including:
When a family contacts us after a devastating injury, we can begin to make a difference straight away. Our serious injury specialists can secure access to personalised treatment and rehabilitation to maximise recovery.
We understand the needs of families as they go through the heart-breaking process of coming to terms with their child’s injury. We use the claims process to ensure that the child receives their full entitlement to compensation, but we provide so much more by way of practical help and support along the way, such as relieve financial hardship by obtaining early funding to pay for essential specialist equipment, therapies, and care.
Whether the injury arose in infancy, early childhood or teenage years, we help families meet their child’s immediate needs, whilst securing the highest compensation settlements to provide for their future. This brings peace of mind that provision has been made for ongoing care and therapies, or to ease the transition from school to higher education, the workplace and supported independence.
Compensation claims for children with head injury, acquired brain injury (ABI) or other disabling injuries, such as spinal injury, amputation or blindness, need skilled handling by specialist solicitors if the child is to receive the compensation they deserve.
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For over 25 years, Boyes Turner’s serious injury lawyers have helped severely injured clients and their families rebuild their lives. Our personal injury lawyers are top-ranked for accident compensation claims by Chambers Directory and the Legal 500 and also are members or accredited/recommended by:
We achieve substantial, high-value compensation settlements for our clients, even in the most complex and challenging cases. We have obtained life-changing compensation for children and teenagers where evidence is missing, a defendant driver cannot be traced or the child’s own behaviour contributed to the cause of the accident.
We work with trusted experts and case managers to ensure that the child’s needs are met, including funded rehabilitation and treatment to maximise recovery, support for special educational needs, specialist equipment and home adaptations. Individually structured compensation awards ensure that the severely injured the child has lifelong financial and practical support. This brings peace of mind that provision has been made for ongoing care and therapies, or to ease the transition from school to higher education, the workplace and supported independence.
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Our serious injury lawyers specialise in obtaining maximum compensation for clients who have suffered severe, permanent injury and disability.
Our clients have usually suffered one or more of the following injuries:
We recover compensation for severe psychological injury to ‘secondary victims’, usually a parent or other close family member, who witnessed their child’s death or severe injury. We also recover compensation for bereaved children who have a financial claim for loss of dependency arising from their parent’s death in an accident.
Depending on the type and severity of the child’s injury, their claim may include compensation for:
Therapies:
Where a bereaved child’s claim arises from the death of a parent, they may be entitled to compensation for their loss of dependency on their parent’s income or ‘services’ (such as childcare). Compensation claims can help support disabled children with key transitions or new life stages:
It can be very difficult to come to terms with a child’s injury which happens in our care or that of another family member or friend. We approach these cases with compassion, and focus on obtaining the child’s entitlement to compensation, working with parents to meet the injured child’s needs.
Our experienced and professional lawyers have helped clients where:
When a child is seriously injured, their rehabilitation, recovery and provision for any lifelong needs caused by their injury should take priority over concerns about the discomfort of bringing a claim against the family member or friend. In our experience of these cases, most families recognise the importance of doing what’s right for the child to ensure that their needs are met.
Our compassionate lawyers are experienced in handling emotionally sensitive claims. We explore all possible causes for an accident or injury to find the best way forward for the claim. The defendant’s insurance company usually handles the claim and takes financial responsibility for paying the child’s compensation. We act for the child and their best interests, but do so with sensitivity to the overall situation. We remain focussed on getting the child the help that they need from the defendant’s insurers, whilst supporting the family through what can be a very difficult time.
If the main cause of the accident was somebody else’s negligence, in most cases, we can still recover compensation for the child or teenager’s serious injuries, even if their own actions made them partly to blame. Where our client’s actions or behaviour contributed to the cause of the accident, or increased their injury, their compensation may be ‘discounted’ by a percentage, to reflect their ‘contributory negligence’.
Where our client’s actions or behaviour contributed to the cause of the accident, or increased their injury, their compensation may be ‘discounted’ by a percentage, to reflect their ‘contributory negligence’.
In cases of severe injury, such as brain injury or permanent disability, even a discounted sum of compensation can be a lifeline to essential help with meeting the child’s needs for therapies, specialist equipment and care. Our personal injury team have recovered substantial compensation for severely injured children and teenagers, even where the defendant’s insurers argued that their own actions contributed to the accident or injury. These include:
We always recommend that families of a severely injured child or teenager contact us for advice before making their own decision about whether their child is likely to succeed with a compensation claim.
Children and young people under the age of 18 are not legally able to make their own decisions in an injury compensation claim.
Their claim must be made with the help of a ‘litigation friend’. In most, but not all, cases this will be the child’s parent.
As the child’s solicitors, the child is our client and we act in their best interests. The litigation friend is our point of contact who gives us instructions and takes our advice on behalf of the child. Where our client is an older teenager, we may include them in discussions and take their views into account where they want to be involved.
Litigation friends must also act in the child’s best interests but they do not make decisions alone. We always provide litigation friends with the benefit of our experienced, expert lawyers’ advice.
The court’s approval is needed for any compensation settlements involving a child. This applies whether the compensation is for the child’s own injury or for their loss of dependency arising from the death of a parent. Court approval usually takes place at a short hearing, during which the legal representatives for both sides are called upon by the court to justify that the child’s agreed settlement is fair, given the full circumstances of the case.
A child’s compensation settlement must be paid into court to be invested on their behalf until they are 18. Where the child is unlikely to have mental capacity when they reach the age of 18, their compensation must be protected by a Court of Protection deputy. This provides reassurance that a young person will not be influenced by others to make unwise decisions about the use of their money which is intended to provide for their future needs.
Our deputyship lawyers ensure that our clients’ money is protected and managed as required by law but is accessible to our clients as necessary to meet their needs.
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A personal injury is an injury to the body. Sometimes the physical injury or the circumstances in which that injury was suffered also leads to a psychiatric or psychological injury.
When someone is injured as a result of another person or organisation’s breach of their duty of care (negligence), the injured person may be entitled to claim compensation for their injury and its financial consequences. The claim for compensation is made against the person or organisation that was responsible for the injury and is usually met by their insurer. The legal process of claiming compensation for injuries that are caused by negligence is known as a personal injury claim.
Boyes Turner’s personal injury team specialise in claims involving severe or catastrophic injury. Most of our clients have been injured in road traffic accidents (RTAs) and accidents at work.
For compensation claims relating to injuries which occurred in England or Wales the general rule is that court proceedings must be issued (formally started) within three years of the date of the injury. In most cases, before a claim can be issued work must be carried out to investigate the claim, notify the defendant and the insurance company against whom the claim is being made and obtain a medical report to support the claim. The sooner you contact us after an injury has occurred, the sooner we can begin to help you, and the better we can investigate and prepare your claim.
Longer time limits apply to children whose three-year time period only begins to run from the age of 18, meaning that their time limit expires when they reach the age of 21.
Time limits do not apply for those who lack mental capacity. Where an injured person’s mental capacity is uncertain, we work closely with our Court of Protection team to determine whether our client has capacity to bring their own claim. As with other claims, it is always advisable to contact us as soon as possible after the injury, to ensure that evidence can be preserved, rehabilitation started (where needed) and financial help secured via the claim.
In exceptional circumstances, the court may extend the time limit (or limitation deadline) for those including:
You can make a personal injury claim for:
Court proceedings are issued (started) in many cases but this does not mean that the case will end in a trial. There are many reasons why court proceedings might be issued:
The duration of a serious injury claim depends on the individual circumstances of the client’s case. Claims take less time to conclude if:
Claims are more complex and may take longer to resolve where:
We work hard to secure cooperation with defendant insurers, to provide immediate needs assessments and timely funded rehabilitation for our clients to maximise their recovery in the all-important period immediately following an injury. Wherever possible, we also secure interim payments to ease our clients’ financial hardship long before their claims have concluded.
By taking the time that is needed for the client’s rehabilitation and the careful assessment of their long-term needs, we can be confident that each client receives the full support and the compensation they deserve.
Compensation is carefully structured to make the best provision for the injured person’s needs. There are rules protecting compensation for children or adults who lack mental capacity. Compensation may be paid in one or more of the following ways:
If you, or someone in your family has been seriously injured in an accident that was somebody else’s fault, you may be entitled to make a claim. If this feels daunting, alongside everything else that you are coping with in the aftermath of an accident, it may help to remember that:
If you decide that you want to go ahead with making a claim, we will gather as much evidence as we can to support your claim. This evidence may include:
We will also contact the defendant and their insurers to begin working towards meeting your immediate needs and settlement of the claim.
Our personal injury lawyers are specialists in catastrophic and severe injury compensation claims. Our clients have often suffered life-changing injury resulting in permanent disability, and we aim to assist their recovery by securing funded rehabilitation, whilst supporting them in adjusting to the changes to their lives and securing compensation to meet their needs in the future.
Our clients usually have suffered one or more of the following:
If you have suffered a serious injury as a result of somebody else’s negligence (breach of their duty of care), we may be able to help you make a claim for compensation.
Depending on the circumstances of your accident and the severity of your injury, we may also be able to help you claim compensation:
The vast majority of our clients’ serious injury claims are settled without the need for a court hearing (trial). Our clients very rarely need to go to court.
Our personal injury specialists are highly experienced in investigating and assessing the strength of each client’s case. From the outset, and throughout the claim, we advise our clients clearly and honestly about their prospects of success.
We work hard to prove each client’s claim, based on evidence of the circumstances of their accident and the impact of their injury. We encourage cooperation with the defendant’s insurers and negotiate the best possible settlements for our clients. On the rare occasions when a claim cannot be settled without a court hearing, this will be because:
In the following circumstances, the law requires a judge to approve an out-of-court settlement, for the protection of those involved:
In these cases, the approval hearing will be a short hearing at which the lawyers for both parties explain the circumstances of the case and the settlement terms to the judge. In most cases, our client will be expected to be in court during the hearing, accompanied and fully supported by members of our legal team.
The amount of compensation that an injured person receives in a personal injury claim depends on a number of individual factors:
Depending on the client’s injury and the way it affects their life, their claim may include compensation for:
An interim payment is a part-payment of compensation which is paid to the injured person, in advance, whilst the claim is ongoing. We can usually secure an interim payment from the defendant’s insurer where they have admitted liability (accepted fault) for our client’s injury.
We use interim payments to help the injured person and their family, who may be suffering financial hardship as a result of the injury. Where insurers are not willing to provide Rehabilitation Code funding, we sometimes obtain interim payments to ensure that our client receives the rehabilitation, case management and therapies that they need straight away.
Interim payments may be used to meet any genuine need, but it is important that the injured person and their family understand that the sums that they have already received as interim payments are deducted from their final compensation at the end of the claim.
Depending on the client’s injury, an interim payment may help meet their needs for:
By understanding and targeting provision for our clients’ rehabilitation and other essential needs early in the claims process, we help restore our clients’ mobility, independence and ability to participate fully in family and social life, long before the claim has concluded.
When claiming for compensation, Boyes Turner will help you gain:
The easiest way to get started is to talk to one of our friendly, experienced solicitors. You can talk to us free and confidentially about your potential claim, with no obligation, by contacting us by email.
It costs nothing to talk to us to find out about making a claim. Our initial advice is free.
When you first contact us, we advise you whether we can help you make a claim. We discuss how your claim will be funded, and advise, fully and clearly, how that works and what it will mean for you.
We offer a range of funding options, but the majority of our clients’ claims are handled on a conditional fee agreement (CFA) basis, often known as ‘no win no fee’. This means that there is nothing to pay at the outset or until the claim is settled, and you receive compensation. If you win your claim, the defendant’s insurer makes a contribution towards your legal costs. You pay nothing if your claim does not succeed.
Jun 2020
Our medical negligence and personal injury teams have been nationally recognised for over 20 years because of their expertise, empathy and commitment to securing maximum compensation for our clients.
Almost 5 years ago my sons suffered a life changing brain injury accident. A new life for everyone, so many unknowns so many difficult decisions. I met Claire and the team shortly after the accident. So many questions answered but more than that, amazing lovely people. Claire has been guiding me and the family throughout this ordeal with such compassion, there every time I needed her we couldn’t of asked for a nicer person. I have met many others with in Boyes Turner and all have been genuine lovely people, I’m now working with Ruth and Lindsay from the court of protection. Again, I can't say enough about them amazing lovely people. They truly do won't the best for my son and they did and continue to do so.
Claire is exceptionally knowledgeable in the personal injury legal domain, especially in the specific area of my injury. From our very first conversation, she was clear in explaining the potential different routes that the process could take and provided me with expectations of what I could expect along the journey. She ensured that all bases were covered, organising meetings, discussions and necessary specialist appointments, in order to bring together the case and take it forward. Claire was then able to use her extensive pool of contacts, to appoint an "area leading" barrister, to represent me. Overall, I was very pleased with appointing Claire and Boyes Turner to act as my solicitor for the legal claim that I pursued. Thank you for all of your support.
I approached Claire Roantree of Boyes Turner in regards to making a claim about a workplace burns injury. It was something that had scarred me physically and mentally and taken a huge toll on the lives of me and my family. Claire wasted no time in finding out what happened and made sure I was treated by known experts and quickly finding an answer to my burns scarring and how I could be treated to help manage my pain. Claire also helped me by appointing a psychiatrist to understand my situation and help me cope with post traumatic stress disorder. As well as taking as much stress of the claim away, she was thorough in every situation, making sure I had the best possible claim, and handled it all expertly, I am so very grateful to her and her team. They have helped guide my life back into a positive direction and I can't thank her enough!
Excellent service from Claire and her team at all times. We were kept up to date at each stage of our claim. The outcome was much better than we expected and we would not hesitate to recommend Boyes Turner to family and friends.
Kim handled my personal injury claim after a car accident with immeasurable expertise and compassion. Boyes Turner arranged every part of my private rehabilitation, which greatly improved the speed and quality of my recovery. Each stage of the litigation process was dealt with efficiently and succinctly. This was then always explained without using unclear legal jargon. On both health and financial levels, I would be in a far worse position without Kim’s invaluable input. I cannot recommend this firm enough.
