Chest Injury Compensation Claims Explained

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How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Chest Injury?

By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 6th September 2023. Suffering a chest injury can have a severe impact on your life, and can lead to serious consequences for both your physical and mental well-being. Chest injuries are often serious and can affect major organs, such as your lungs and your heart.

In this guide, we will detail how to make a chest injury compensation claim. We will discuss the criteria that your case must meet in order to form a valid personal injury claim, and we will also touch on the different types of chest injuries that you could sustain.

Following this, we will discuss chest injury compensation, and detail how solicitors and other legal professionals calculate the different heads of claim. We will also touch on No Win No Fee solicitors, and the benefits of working with a legal professional on your case.

To learn more, read on, or contact our team of friendly advisors by:

chest injury

Chest injury compensation claims guide

Select A Section

  1. What Is A Chest Injury?
  2. What Are The Main Types Of Chest Injuries?
  3. Chest Injuries At Work
  4. Time Limit For Starting A Chest Injury Claim
  5. How Much Could I Claim For A Chest Injury?
  6. No Win No Fee Chest Injury Claims
  7. Useful Links

What Is A Chest Injury?

Chest injury is a very wide term that is used to describe a range of different injury types and illnesses. All of these can affect the chest area of the body, commonly the chest is defined as the area between the neck and the diaphragm. It can include everything from broken bones to musculoskeletal injuries to other problems. Some of these illnesses can include things such as chronic injuries and conditions affecting the heart and lungs. Specific types of injury can include;

    • Fractured and broken bones (including ribs, the clavicle, sternum, or even the breastbone).
      Damage to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the chest and sternum.
    • Chronic illnesses affecting the heart and lungs which have been caused by unsafe working conditions. Chronic conditions can include the 900 new cases of asbestosis caused by the workplace each year.
    • Any other injuries or illnesses which can affect the internal organs.

Chest injuries can have a serious and long-term effect on those who suffer from them. To get the compensation you deserve, talk to Legal Expert today.

What Are The Main Types Of Chest Injuries?

There are two main ways that an injury to the chest can occur. The two types of chest injuries are impact trauma and exposure to a hazardous substance. Whichever of these caused the accident, the cause is usually not related to the amount of compensation you may receive. Your compensation will be calculated with reference to the nature of the injury sustained, the immediate and long-term effects it has on the claimant and any financial losses incurred.

The main types of chest injuries are:

  • Impact trauma: These injuries can be caused in a variety of ways such as traffic accidents, falls, and even criminal assaults.
  • The exposure to hazardous substances: this type of chest injury claim is commonly known as compensation claim for industrial disease. These types of injury and illness include pneumococcus and mesothelioma.

Whilst the cause of the accident doesn’t affect the amount of compensation you can claim, being able to establish the liability of the party responsible does. In order to make a successful claim for personal injury compensation, your solicitor will need to show negligence on the part of the responsible party.

Chest Injuries At Work

When a chest injury or illness does occur due to exposure hazardous materials in the workplace, those affected can bring a claim for personal injury compensation against their employer. If you suffer an injury to the chest and your employer has not previously taken the necessary and reasonable steps to protect workers from danger, they may then be liable for the resulting injuries. Reasonable steps can include placing adequate ventilation and providing the necessary personal protective equipment.

You could be entitled to claim compensation for a chest injury you have suffered in the workplace on the basis of the ‘Health and Safety at Work Act 1974’ and the COSH (or Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) regulations. The former outlines the general rights of employees to a workplace that has been made safe from all forms of foreseeable accidents, the latter protects employees from the risk of exposure to materials that can cause lung problems.

If you would like to know more about whether or not you could have grounds to claim on the basis of these pieces of legislation, call us today.

Time Limit For Starting A Chest Injury Claim

The Limitation Act 1980 establishes that there’s usually a three-year time limit for starting a personal injury claim for a chest injury and symptoms caused. It normally applies from the date of the accident that caused your injury.

Under certain circumstances, this time limit can work differently. If, for instance, the injured party lacks the mental capacity to make a chest injury claim, then the time limit is suspended indefinitely. A court-appointed litigation friend could make a claim instead on the injured party’s behalf. If this does not happen though, and the injured party later recovers their mental capacity, then the time limit for starting a claim will start from the day of recovery.

If a child suffers a chest injury, then the time limit will be suspended until the person turns 18. A claim could be made before that happens on the injured party’s behalf by a litigation friend. If this doesn’t happen though, then the injured party will have three years to start their own claim from the day of their 18th birthday.

To ask more questions regarding your eligibility to claim chest injury compensation, please contact our team for free today.

How Much Could I Claim For A Chest Injury?

There are two potential heads of claim that you could receive should your chest injury compensation claim succeed. The first, general damages, is awarded to all successful claimants. This compensates you for your injuries and the pain and suffering they have caused you.

Often, solicitors and other legal professionals will use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them value this head of claim. The JCG is a document that lists guideline compensation brackets for various injuries. Below you can find some of the amounts listed in the 16th edition of the JCG.

Please only use this table as a guide.

Edit
Injury Compensation
Loss of one lung/heart damage £100,670 to £150,110
Chest injury causing loss of function/loss of life expectancy £65,740 to £100,670
Chest injury causing some disability £31,310 to £54,830
Simple penetrating injury of the chest £12,590 to £17,960
Toxic fume/smoke inhalation £5,320 to £12,590
Collapsed lung £2,190 to £5,320
Rib fracture Up to £3,950

The second head of claim, special damages, is awarded to those who have suffered financial losses because of their injuries. In order to claim under this heading, you need to be able to provide proof of your losses with bank statements, receipts, or bills.

Under special damages, you could potentially claim back the cost of:

  •   Lost earnings.
  •   Medicines and prescriptions.
  •   Domestic help.
  •   Childcare.
  •   Essential travel.

To find out more about claiming compensation for a chest injury, contact our team of advisors today.

No Win No Fee Chest Injury Claims

Those with valid grounds to claim chest injury compensation can consider getting support from a solicitor. If you talk to our advisors about your claim, they may connect you with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors if you meet the eligibility criteria.

Our solicitors can support chest injury claims under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). With such an agreement in place, you won’t need to pay upfront or ongoing fees for your solicitor’s services. Also, you won’t need to pay your solicitor for their work if your injury claim proves unsuccessful.

If your claim does succeed, the solicitor will take what’s called a success fee. This is typically a legally capped percentage subtracted from the compensation awarded to you.

To learn more about how a No Win No Fee solicitor could help you with your chest injury claim, you can contact our advisors for free. You can reach our team through the following methods:

Useful Links

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    • Patrick Mallon

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.