A lumbar spine injury can cause chronic pain, muscle spasms and loss of mobility, resulting in a big impact on your life. The emotional fallout will also likely be significant, especially if your injury wasn’t your fault. If this is the case, you may be able to pursue lumbar spine injury compensation. When it comes to how much personal injury compensation you could claim, it will depend on the severity of your injury and whether you have incurred financial losses. Don’t worry, we can assist you with compensation estimates.
Here at Accident Claims, our solicitors know how uncertain things might feel for you and are dedicated to making you feel supported during the personal injury claims process. This includes removing financial obstacles so that you can claim with confidence. Our solicitors achieve this by offering their legal services on No Win No Fee terms, allowing them to assist claimants in a more accessible manner. So, if you want immediate access to legal representation that is both adept and sympathetic, please get in touch using the contact details below:
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Jump To A Section
- How Much Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation Can I Claim?
- Calculating Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation Payouts
- Special Damages In Claims For Lumbar Spine Injuries
- Can I Make A Claim For Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation?
- What Are Lumbar Spine Injuries?
- Types And Levels Of Lumbar Spinal Damage
- How To Start Your Lumbar Spinal Injury Claim
- No Win No Fee Claims For Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Information
How Much Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation Can I Claim?
How much lumbar spine injury compensation you could claim is dependent on the severity of your injury and whether you have incurred financial losses.
Your lumbar spine injury compensation will comprise a head of claim known as general damages if the claim is successful. This will compensate you for any and all pain and suffering you have experienced as a direct result of your lumbar spine injury. This includes physical and psychological symptoms.
Your solicitor may look at two important documents when calculating this head of your claim: your medical records and the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG is a publication that comprises a comprehensive list of injuries alongside guideline compensation brackets.
To provide you with a clearer understanding of what lumbar spine injury compensation may entail, we’ve compiled a table below containing several carefully sourced figures from the JCG. We would like to point out that the first figure is not selected from the JCG. Lastly, we kindly ask that you use the content below as a guideline only when considering your own lumbar spine injury compensation.
| Compensation Guideline | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries with Special Damages | Up to £1 Million+ | Multiple severe injuries with special damages including loss of earnings, private medical treatments and childcare costs. |
| Injuries Involving Paralysis - Paraplegia | £267,340 to £346,890 | Several influential factors will be taken into account such as their prognosis and any future vulnerability. |
| Back - Severe (i) | £111,150 to £196,450 | This will be the most severe injury involving damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots. |
| Back - Severe (ii) | £90,510 to £107,910 | There will be special features in this case that take them outside the lower brackets applicable to orthopaedic injury to the back. |
| Back - Severe (iii) | £47,320 to £85,100 | This bracket will cover cases involving disc lesions or fractures of discs leading to chronic conditions. |
| Back -Moderate (i) | £33,880 to £47,320 | This compensation bracket covers a wide variety of injuries ranging from compression/crush fractures to a prolapsed intervertebral disc requiring surgery. |
| Back - Moderate (ii) | £15,260 to £33,880 | The injured individual will typically suffer from frequently encountered injuries to the back such as disturbance of ligaments and muscles giving rise to backache. |
| Back - Minor (i) | £9,630 to £15,260 | The claimant will fully recover or will experience a recovery to nuisance level takes place without surgery within about two to five years. |
Our advisors are available 24/7 to answer any questions you may have regarding compensation. Please contact us today if you require further assistance.
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Calculating Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation Payouts
When calculating lumbar spine injury compensation payouts, your solicitor will investigate several factors that may influence the value of your personal injury claim, ranging from the severity of the injury to whether it has impacted your quality of life.
There are some other influential factors that your solicitor will need to consider; specifically, they will need to confirm whether you:
- Suffered psychological damage
- Will encounter any future pain and suffering
- Sustained deformity or disfigurement
- Experienced invasive or distressing treatment
If you have any questions regarding any of the above factors, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our advisors, who will be more than happy to help you.
Special Damages In Claims For Lumbar Spine Injuries
Special damages in claims for lumbar spine injuries can compensate you for financial losses you have incurred as a direct result of your injury.
To help give you a clearer understanding of what financial losses can be covered under special damages, we’ve provided some examples:
- Medical expenses
- Travel expenses
- Adaptations to property
- Care costs
- Loss of earnings
- Loss of future earnings
- Childcare costs
If you believe that you are eligible to receive special damages as part of your lumbar spine injury compensation, please bear in mind that you will need to provide evidence in the form of documented costs. You can provide your solicitor with proof in the form of payslips, invoices and receipts.
We can provide you with fast and clear guidance on eligibility for special damages if you contact us today.
Can I Make A Claim For Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation?
You could make a claim for lumbar spine injury compensation if you can prove that the negligent actions of another caused your injury. Essentially you must prove:
- You were owed a duty of care
- This duty was breached
- This breach led to you suffering a lumbar spine injury
A duty of care is a legal responsibility for your reasonable safety. In the next section we share the different scenarios where you are owed one and when a claim could be made.
If you’d like an expert to assess the eligibility of your claim, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our friendly advisors today.
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What Are Lumbar Spine Injuries?
Lumbar spine injuries involve damage to the lower vertebrae of the back, nerves and spinal cord and can range from strains to paralysis.
We’ve provided some examples below of how lumbar spine injuries can be caused by different types of accidents:
Road Traffic Accidents
Every single road user legally owes a duty of care to one another to use the roads safely and to adhere by the rules of the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act 1988.
An example of when a road traffic accident claim could be made includes:
- A driver is aggressively tailgating another vehicle on the motorway and crashes into the rear of the car, causing the driver in front to suffer a herniated disc in their lower back.
Accidents At Work
When you’re at work, your employer has a duty of care, as outlined in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, to take reasonable steps to ensure your safety.
An example of when an accident at work claim could be made includes:
- An employer has failed to conduct regular maintenance checks on the forklift trucks in the warehouse. One of the forklifts malfunctions and pins an employee against a wall, causing them to suffer a crush injury to the lumbar region.
Public Place Accidents
If you are in a public place, you are owed a duty of care by the occupier (the party in control of the place), and they must take steps to ensure your reasonable safety, as per the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
An example of when a public liability claim could be made includes:
- There’s a large spillage near the entrance of a museum that hasn’t been cleaned up or marked with a ‘wet floor’ sign. A visitor slips and falls, straining their lower back.
To see if you may be eligible to claim lumbar spine injury compensation for your specific circumstances, you can contact our advisors.
Types And Levels Of Lumbar Spinal Damage
Lumbar spinal damage is categorised into two types, complete and incomplete, and by the level of the spine that has been affected, ranging from L1 to L5. Both the types and the levels determine the functional impact on a person’s legs, bladder, bowel and sexual function.
Bluntly, a complete injury means the person has suffered paralysis, whereas an incomplete injury means that some feeling and muscle control still remains, indicating some nerve signals are still able to pass between the spine and the brain.
L1 & L2: Injuries involving the L1 and L2 can result in the injured person losing the use of their legs as well as control of the lower organs and muscles.
L3, L4 & L5: When it comes to injuries involving the L3, 4, and 5, the effect can vary and range from numbness to more significant impacts regarding controlling the lower half of the body.
If you would like to speak to an advisor to see if you could claim for your particular spinal injury, you can contact our advisors.
How To Start Your Lumbar Spinal Injury Claim
To start your lumbar spinal injury claim, you need to seek as much evidence as you can to support your claim, as well as adhere to the legal time limit.
The evidence you gather needs to demonstrate the severity of the injury you suffered as well as who was liable. Examples of evidence could include:
- CCTV or dashcam footage
- Photographs of the accident scene
- Contact details from any witnesses who are willing to provide statements at a later date
- If you have been injured at work, you can photocopy the contents from an accident logbook
- Medical records clearly articulating the severity of your lumbar spine injury and the treatment required
- If you have been injured in a road traffic accident, you must collect the insurance details of all those involved
Additionally, you will have 3 years to start your claim from the date you suffered your accident, as per the Limitation Act 1980. This is known as the limitation period.
There are exceptions to this time limit, and if you would like to know what they are, you can contact our advisory team.
No Win No Fee Claims For Lumbar Spine Injury Compensation
No Win No Fee claims for lumbar spine injury compensation could be made with our expert solicitors. However, it is important to note that No Win No Fee refers to the costs of hiring legal representation and not the cost of making the claim itself. Our solicitors specifically offer a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) contract. A CFA means:
- You won’t pay for solicitors’ service fees if your claim fails
- You won’t pay for solicitors’ service fees while your claim is in progress
- You won’t pay any upfront solicitors’ service fees
In the happy event that your lumbar spine injury claim is successful, you will pay what is known as a success fee. This is legally capped percentage of your compensation that is paid to your solicitor. The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 set out this cap. Importantly, this means you keep the bulk of your compensation.
We also pride ourselves on our support services, which we offer to every client to guarantee that their experience during the claims process is as stress-free as possible. Some of the services our solicitors offer include:
- Take great care in assessing your lumbar spine injury claim so we can set it up for success
- Provide you with holistic support, including securing medical assistance for you
- Calculate a compensation figure that mirrors the severity of your injury and any financial losses
- Translate the legal jargon so you can follow the progress of your claim with a clear understanding
- Represent you in several capacities, including during negotiations and court proceedings, so that you can focus on your recovery
- Find and consolidate evidence for you to further fortify the strength of your claim
Contact Accident Claims To Get Started
Contact us here at Accident Claims to discuss your lumbar spine injury compensation claim and get started. After your free initial consultation, there is no obligation to proceed with us. However, if you do, we could connect you with one of our expert solicitors.
- Phone us on 0800 073 8801
- Claim online
- Click the chat button to talk to an advisor. We promise it’s a real person and not a robot!
Frequently Asked Questions
Below, we answer some frequently asked questions:
What Is The Lumbar Spine Made Of?
The lumbar spine is made of five large vertebrae, numbered L1 to L5.
What Are The Symptoms Of A Lumbar Spine Injury?
The symptoms of a lumbar spine injury can include pain in the lower back, legs, or buttocks, and may also involve numbness, tingling, and weakness in the legs and feet.
How Do You Know If Your Back Injury Is Serious?
A back injury may be serious if you are experiencing symptoms such as loss of bladder or bowel control, pain, tingling or weakness and if the symptoms started directly after a serious accident.
How Long Does A Lower Back Injury Take To Heal?
The length of time it takes for a lower back injury to heal varies depending on the severity of the injury, but back pain from a minor injury usually improves within a few weeks.
What Are 3 Common Injuries To The Lower Back?
The 3 common injuries to the lower back are sprains and strains, herniated discs and fractured vertebrae.
Should I Go To The Doctor For A Lower Back Injury?
You should go to the doctor for a lower back injury if the pain does not improve after a few weeks, you’re struggling, or the pain is getting worse.
More Information
Additional guides by us:
- Learn how multiple injury claims work.
- Guidance on how to claim if you have slipped on stairs at work.
- Advice on how to prove fault in a car accident claim.
External resources:
- Read this guidance from the NHS on navigating a back injury.
- Check your eligibility for Statutory Sick Pay.
- Request CCTV footage of yourself from GOV.UK.
Thank you for taking the time to read our guide on lumbar spine injury compensation.
