Are you looking for help to make a personal injury claim for care home negligence? You may have suffered harm because standards of care were not met in a local authority or a privately run care home. If so, this guide will provide all the essential information to help you understand your legal options.
We begin with an explanation of personal injury compensation – what it can cover and how it is calculated. After this, our guide defines the eligibility criteria for starting a nursing home negligence claim. The most common types of negligence that can occur in a care home setting are discussed. Then we explain how you could claim compensation on behalf of someone else, such as a family member in residential care.
There are time limits for starting a personal injury claim, so we explain those. After which we outline the many advantages of working with a solicitor under a type of No Win No Fee contract. You can reach out to our advisors as you read for an explanation of any of the points raised. Simply:
- Contact us via this link to talk about nursing home negligence claims.
- Call us on 0800 408 7826
- Or message us via the chat window below.
Jump To A Section Of Our Guide
- Compensation Calculator For Care Home Negligence
- What Are Care Home Negligence Claims?
- What Are The Most Common Types Of Care Home Negligence?
- Can I Claim Compensation On Another Person’s Behalf?
- How Long Do I Have To Claim For Nursing Home Negligence?
- No Win No Fee Nursing Home Negligence Claims
- Learn More About Personal Injury Claims
Compensation Calculator For Care Home Negligence
Compensation in successful personal injury claims can typically be formed of up to two heads of loss called general and special damages. The first applies a value to the physical injuries themselves, including emotional pain and suffering caused by the incident. It might also cover whether the person’s quality of life was significantly damaged and if a permanent disability was caused.
To calculate general damages, those involved in the task might refer to available medical records. Alongside this, documents like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) are sometimes consulted. This publication provides award guideline amounts for various injuries based on past cases (please see excerpt below).
Because every personal injury claim will vary, these are to be read purely as guidelines. Furthermore, we include a top-line entry in our example table below that does not come from the JCG:
Compensation Guidelines
Injury | Severity | Compensation Guideline | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Multiple types of severe injury and Special Damages | Severe | Up to £1,000,000 plus | Awards like this represent multiple types of severe harm and Special Damage amounts for care costs, and medical bills. |
Brain | (a) Very Severe | £344,150 up to £493,000 | Instances of brain damage that create severe loss of meaningful interaction and environmental responses, requiring full time care |
(c) Moderate (i) | £183,190 up to £267,340 | Prompting a personality change, intellect deficit and impact on senses. | |
Pelvis/Hip | (a) Severe (i) | £95,680 up to £159,770 | Fractures that might dislocate the back joint and rupture the bladder causing excrutiating pain. |
(b) Moderate (i) | £32,450 up to £47,810 | Significant injury that might require hip replacement surgery but risk of permanent disability is not great. | |
Knee | (a) Severe (ii) | £63,610 up to £85,100 | The type of fractures that might extend into the knee joint creating constant pain and limited movement. |
Wrist | (a) Complete loss of function. | £58,710 up to £73,050 | Injuries that permanently remove function loss in the wrist, even after corrective surgery. |
(b) Significant | £29,900 up to £47,810 | Although the injury causes permanent injury, some level of use remains in the joint. | |
Back | (b) Moderate (i) | £33,880 up to £47,320 | Injuries that include a crush or compressed lumbar vertebrae fracture creating increased risk of osteoarthritis. |
Can I Claim For Financial Losses Caused By Care Home Negligence?
Special damages are the head of loss that reimburses the person for financial harm created by their injuries. In order to submit a claim for special damages (which can only be made alongside a claim for general damages) you need solid evidence that proves the financial harm. With this in mind, the following could be available to you:
- Any proof of medical costs for treatments to your injuries.
- Tickets and receipts that prove travel to essential appointments.
- Evidence of money spent on mobility aids to help cope with your injuries.
Reach out to the advisory team to see how much you could claim. Or ask us a question about any part of the care home negligence claims process.
What Are Care Home Negligence Claims?
Every worker in a care home or place that provides residential support owes their clients a duty of care. They are legally required to take reasonable and practicable steps to stop the residents (and staff) from experiencing harm as per the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HASAWA). In addition to this, further obligations to minimise risk to those in their care are outlined in legislation called the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Therefore, the basis of a valid care home negligence claim needs to meet the following criteria:
- The responsible party (the care home operator) owed you or a loved one a duty of care.
- They breached this duty in some way (we explore examples in the next section).
- This caused your/your loved one’s injury.
If you feel confident that a breach in the duty of care led directly to you suffering harm, speak to our team about your potential nursing home negligence claim today.
What Are The Most Common Types Of Care Home Negligence?
Negligent practices in a care home can lead to several scenarios where a client could be injured. Below we look at four main areas of commonly encountered injury:
Medication And Prescription Errors
Care workers and staff at residential homes must be fully trained and confident in the roles they perform. This is perhaps most important when it comes to dispensing medication to the residents. Medical treatment errors here can be as follows:
- The staff mixed up the medications and administered the wrong tablets to a resident.
- Care staff failed to monitor the health status of a patient correctly and either failed to detect a medication problem or disregarded one.
- The wrong instructions were given to other staff members and a resident failed to receive their medication.
Pressure Sores And Ulcers
Nursing home staff need to be vigilant about the condition and status of those in their care because some residents may not be able to move without assistance. Medical conditions that are not detected can deteriorate quickly and a sore can develop on the patient’s skin if they’re left in the same position for too long. Failure to respond to these issues could result in the following:
- A resident who is left unattended for a prolonged period develops bed sores which then get infected.
- Pressure sores are left untreated or treated incorrectly by staff and as a consequence, they worsen, ulcerate or create sepsis.
Injuries Caused By Neglect And Abuse
Sadly, standards of care in some residential care homes are far from ideal. An elderly patient can experience deliberate neglect and cruelty at the hands of those trusted to look after them. Injury can result from episodes like the following:
- Care home staff deliberately drop or handle a client roughly, causing them bruising or fractures.
- Staff withheld proper food and liquids, causing the resident to suffer psychological injuries.
- A resident is deliberately left unattended and they fall out of bed and suffer a fractured ankle.
Injuries Caused By Falls Or Handling Errors
A care home negligence claim could also apply after the following caused injury:
- Staff failed to properly assess risk before moving or lifting someone.
- The care staff failed to use the correct lifting equipment.
- The staff handled the resident without due care and they suffered a broken back.
Some accidents can happen naturally. So it’s important that you can prove negligence if you wish to move ahead with a claim.
Can I Claim Compensation On Another Person’s Behalf?
You might be looking to claim for nursing home negligence on behalf of a loved one. You could do so as a litigation friend. It’s necessary to apply to the courts to become a litigation friend and they will decide whether or not to appoint you. They will need to see that you are:
- Over the age of 18.
- Have the person’s best interests at heart.
- Are competent enough to fulfil the responsibilities.
Call our advisors for help. They can explain how to be appointed as a litigation friend and make a claim on behalf of an injured party.
How Long Do I Have To Claim For Nursing Home Negligence?
There is a three-year time limit that applies to personal injury claims starting from the date of injury. Or in cases of medical negligence, three years from the date that negligence was first indicated as the cause of ill health (date of knowledge). These time limits are set out within the Limitation Act 1980.
However, there are some exceptions to this, such as for those without the mental capacity to manage their own claim. Please call our advisors for more information about time limits.
No Win No Fee Nursing Home Negligence Claims
You could make your compensation claim with the help of one of the skilled personal injury solicitors from our panel. With years of experience behind them in claims like this, they can offer the essential services to handle your claim properly. For example, they can:
- Help you gather supporting evidence such as witness statements.
- Calculate the amount of compensation owed to you much more precisely.
- Offer advice on what settlement to accept.
- Take care of the court-issued requests for information and deadlines that come up.
- Argue forcefully on your behalf for the maximum compensation owed to you.
Our panel are able to offer this array of legal services via a type of No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). There are numerous advantages to starting a claim this way. Under a CFA:
- No initial solicitors fees apply.
- As the claim moves ahead, the solicitors request no fees for their services.
- No legal fees for finished work apply if the claim fails.
- A contract entered into like this requires a small payment to the solicitors only if the claim is successful. This ‘success fee’ is a minimal and legally-restricted percentage of the compensation awarded. Due to the legal cap, the claimant can expect to receive virtually all of their compensation.
Interested in seeing if this could help you make a care home negligence claim for compensation? Start by speaking to our advisors on the contact points below. Or if you just have further general questions about personal injury claims and negligent care, they can answer those as well:
- Contact us via this link to submit a claim.
- Call us on 0800 408 7826
- Or message us via the chat window below to discuss how care home negligence solicitors could help you.
Learn More About Personal Injury Claims
In addition to claims for injury caused by nursing home negligence, these other guides might be informative:
- Learn how much a claim could be worth and how compensation is calculated with this guide.
- Guidance on claiming for a slip, trip and fall injury.
- Also, you can read about a medical negligence claim here.
External resources:
- Here, care home consumer rights are detailed by GOV.UK.
- Information about health and safety in care homes from the Health and Safety Executive is here.
- Lastly, some advice on how to make a complaint about a care home from Care Quality Commission.
We value your interest in our guide. If the advisory team can assist with any other questions or information about care home negligence and No Win No Fee solicitors, please take advantage of the free help available.