A Guide To Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 3rd October 2023. This guide will discuss personal injury claims for back pain. Firstly, we will explain the eligibility criteria for making this type of claim if you are injured in an accident. We also look at the evidence you could gather to strengthen your case, as well as the time limits that need to be adhered to.

Whether you are at work, on the road or in a public place, you are owed a duty of care by certain third parties, including employers, occupiers and other road users. This guide will cover the legislation which lays out responsibilities required of these parties further in our guide.

personal injury claims for back pain

A Guide To Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

Back pain can impact your life in different ways, including physically, emotionally and financially. We will look at some examples of how back injuries could be sustained in an accident, as well as discuss the compensation that could be awarded in successful back injury claims.

Finally, we explain how our No Win No Fee solicitors could assist you in seeking personal injury compensation and the terms under which they could offer their services.

For more information on seeking personal injury compensation, please don’t hesitate to contact an advisor. They can offer free advice and answer any questions you may have relating to your potential claim. To get in touch, you can:

Select A Section

  1. Eligibility Criteria For Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain
  2. Types Of Accidents That Could Cause Back Injuries
  3. How To Prove Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain
  4. Back Pain Compensation Payouts
  5. Get Help From A No Win No Fee Solicitor
  6. Find Out More About Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

Eligibility Criteria For Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

In order to be eligible to make a personal injury claim for back pain, you will need to meet the relevant eligibility criteria. This is:

  1. A relevant third party owed you a duty of care.
  2. This party breached their duty of care.
  3. Due to this breach, you suffered an injury.

There are various instances where you are owed a duty of care. We will share what these are later on in this guide.

You would also have to ensure that you start your back pain claim within the relevant limitation period. As per the Limitation Act 1980, you would typically have three years from the date of the accident to start your personal injury claim.

However, there are certain exceptions that apply to this limitation period. For example, the time limit is paused for those under the age of 18. From their 18th birthday, they will have three years to start a claim. Alternatively, a litigation friend could make a claim on their behalf prior to this date.

To see whether you may have a valid claim, or to learn more about the other exceptions that apply to the time limit, you can contact our advisors.

Types Of Accidents That Could Cause Back Injuries

As mentioned, different third parties owe a duty of care to you in certain places, such as at work, on the road, and in a public space. The following sections discuss the legislation that they must adhere to, and how an accident causing a back injury could occur if they fail to do so.

Public Place Accident Claims

The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 explains that the occupier of a public space must take steps to ensure that members of the public are reasonably safe when on the premises.

If that duty is not met, it could lead to the following accidents resulting in a back injury. For example:

  • Despite a report being made about the hazard, a spill in a shop is not signposted or cleaned up in a reasonable time frame. As a result, a customer slips and falls, causing them to sustain a minor back injury.
  • A broken pavement, that is not repaired after a report has been made, causes a pedestrian to trip over and damage their back.

Workplace Accident Claims

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA) establishes an employers a duty of care towards their employees. Section 2 of HASAWA notes that employers must take reasonably practicable steps to prevent employees from sustaining harm at work.

A failure to uphold their duty could mean an employee sustains an injury to their back in an accident. For example:

Road Traffic Accidents Accident Claims

Road users have a duty of care to each other, as outlined by the Road Traffic Act 1988. There is a requirement to use the road in a way that prevents harm to one another. The Highway Code also contains rules that must be followed, as well as guidance on the different responsibilities road users have.

If there is a failure to uphold this duty, it could lead to a road user sustaining a serious back injury. For example:

  • Paralysis or another spinal injury could be sustained in a head-on collision caused by a road user driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
  • A soft tissue injury to the back could be sustained in a rear-end collision caused by a road user failing to stop at a set of traffic lights.

For information on personal injury claims for back pain, please speak with an advisor on the number above. They can discuss your specific accident and help you understand the potential next steps you could take.

How To Prove Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

It can be helpful to gather evidence to prove a breach of duty caused you harm. As such, you may benefit from gathering:

  • Contact details for potential witnesses. You can still claim if there are no witnesses, but witness statements can be useful to a claim when gathered during the process.
  • CCTV footage, or footage from a personal device like a dash cam, is useful if it shows the accident and its cause.
  • Similarly, photographs can illustrate the scene and any hazards that caused an accident. Photos could also highlight visible injuries.
  • Official records like a workplace accident book or a police report can give an account of events.
  • A diary can show how the accident and injuries have affected your life, including details of your treatment and symptoms.
  • Medical records, like a scan or X-ray, could give insight into the injury you sustained.

Our solicitors could help you to gather evidence as part of the service they provide. If you would like to have one of them represent your claim, please chat with our advisors. They can offer information on the other services they can provide, as well as assess when you could be eligible to have them begin working on your case.

Back Pain Compensation Payouts

There are two possible heads of claim that could make up a personal injury settlement. One is special damages, which can award compensation for the financial losses, both past and future, that your injuries caused. For example, you could claim back costs such as:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Medical expenses
  • The cost of home adaptations
  • Transport costs

Evidence in the form of payslips, receipts, travel tickets, and invoices, could prove any losses you are claiming back under this head of loss.

General damages is the other head of claim that will form your payout after a successful claim. This compensates for the physical pain and mental suffering resulting from your injuries.

We have produced this compensation table based on guideline award brackets from the Judicial College Guidelines, which is a document used alongside medical evidence to help legal professionals value injuries.

However, you should only use this table as a guide. This is because the compensation awarded for injuries will vary based on numerous factors. 

Compensation Table

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Injury Type Severity Compensation – Guideline Notes
Back Severe (i) £91,090 to £160,980 The most severe and debilitating injuries, including spinal cord and nerve root damage. These injuries will feature incomplete paralysis, severe pain and disability, and impaired bowel, bladder and sexual function.
Severe (ii) £74,160 to £88,430 Cases which have special features, such as nerve root damage with associated sensation loss, impaired mobility and impaired bowel and bladder function.
Severe (iii) £38,780 to £69,730 Lesions or fractures of discs, or of vertebral bodies. Also covers soft tissue injuries causing chronic issues.
Moderate (i) £27,760 to £38,780 Traumatic spondylolisthesis, where constant pain and the likely necessity of spinal fusion treatment are present.
Moderate (ii) £12,510 to £27,760 Back injuries such as ligament and muscle disturbance, giving rise to backache.
Minor (i) £7,890 to £12,510 It takes about two to five years to fully recover, or recover to nuisance level, without surgery from injuries such as less serious strains and sprains.

For more information on how compensation for personal injury claims for back pain is calculated, please contact an advisor on the number above.

Get Help From A No Win No Fee Solicitor

If you have a valid claim, and wish to seek legal representation, you could be connected with our solicitors. You could then be offered support with your case on the basis of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), a type of No Win No Fee contract.

A CFA could benefit you because a fee for your solicitor’s services would not be needed:

  • Upfront;
  • As the claim progresses; or
  • In the event that a claim that fails.

Your solicitor would take a success fee from your compensation if your claim succeeds. This fee is a percentage of the compensation you receive. However, there is a cap applied to the percentage by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013. As such, the amount your solicitor can take is restricted.

To learn more about personal injury claims for back pain, and if one of our solicitors could help you seek compensation, please get in touch with our team today. You can do so by:

Find Out More About Personal Injury Claims For Back Pain

Here are some more guides which could help:

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Thank you for reading our guide on personal injury claims for back pain. If you have any further questions, please contact an advisor on the number above.