Contact us today to discuss how we can offer you a more specialist service for your CRPS compensation claim.Call us now on 01225 462871 or complete the Contact Form at the foot of this page. |
CRPS compensation amounts
We understand CRPS and the fundamental importance of providing long-term financial protection for you and your family. We have a proven track record of recovering the maximum compensation for CRPS, very often high six-figure and seven-figure awards. Nothing can compensate you for the torment of CRPS, but we can at least help remove the financial worry.
So far, we have recovered over £53 million pounds in compensation for people suffering from CRPS.
“Thank you. This money is literally lifechanging, I can’t even begin to tell you what it means to me and my family.” AD (£1.1 million compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
CRPS compensation calculator
A word of warning! Beware websites offering a “CRPS compensation calculator“. There really is no such thing. All such sites do is to quote from the Judicial College Guidelines, for which, see below.
Your claim is unique, and the amount claimed is tailored to you.
Keep up to date with the latest developments relating to CRPS and chronic pain more generally through our topical and regularly updated Chronic Pain Blog. |
Contents
- Damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity
- Past Loss (also known as Special Damages)
- Future Loss
- How much CRPS Compensation will you receive?
- How long does the CRPS compensation process take?
Damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity
In the UK, as for other types of injury and medical conditions, judges have fixed the range of compensation available for the pain and suffering of CRPS, including its effect on your quality and enjoyment of life. Compensation for the actual pain and suffering of CRPS are woefully low; the latest edition of the Judicial College Guidelines suggests a maximum award of £84,010.
However, the largest part of your compensation for CRPS is inevitably your financial loss, divided into ‘past loss’ (ie losses to the date that your claim settles) and ‘future loss’. Although every claim is different, claims typically include:
Past Loss (also known as Special Damages)
It’s pretty much impossible to provide an exhaustive list of what can be included in your past losses. As a rule of thumb, if the loss would not have been incurred in the absence of the accident – and it’s reasonable, claim it. The following are common types of past loss.
Loss of earnings
Your CRPS may mean that you are unable to work at all. Alternatively, you may have had to reduce your hours or find a new job entirely. As part of your CRPS compensation claim, you are entitled to claim your net loss of earnings (ie your take-home pay, not including income tax and National Insurance).
If you are self-employed or part of your income comes from bonuses or overtime, then calculating your loss of earnings is not always straightforward. Often with self-employed claimants, we instruct an expert forensic accountant to work with you and us to help calculate your past loss of earnings and project your future loss of earnings.
Loss of pension
In our experience, this is often overlooked by solicitors. As a matter of law, almost all employers must contribute to your pension. If you cannot work, you are losing out on valuable pension contributions. These must be included in your CRPS compensation claim.
“Following an accident at work I received a foot injury which left me with a condition called CRPS. The solicitors firm I had initially were beyond bad. The best thing I ever did was to speak to Andrew Atkinson at BLB. Not only is a really caring person, he really understands CRPS and helped to get me some private treatment that I know I would never have got on the NHS. I can’t thank him enough.” PB (£665,000 compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
Treatment costs
It almost goes without saying that you should include in your CRPS compensation claim any treatment costs which have not already been paid by the other side. Typically, these include the cost of physiotherapy, occupational therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulation/dorsal root ganglion stimulation and residential pain management programmes.
Case management
In many cases, at the beginning of your CRPS compensation claim, we arrange for a case manager, who is typically an independent nurse or occupational therapist, to advise and help you with issues such as adaptations to your home, specialist disability aids and equipment and even treatment.
The cost of the case manager should either be paid directly by the other side or form part of your CRPS compensation claim.
“Thank you so much for everything. I couldn’t have hoped for a nicer, kinder and more understanding solicitor. Your confidence is infectious!” JW (£450,000 compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
The cost of care
Most people with CRPS require some form of care and/or assistance. This can include domestic cleaning, gardening and cooking, as well as help with bathing, dressing and personal care. Sometimes you will have paid for this care and assistance. More often, it’s provided by your family and friends.
Clearly, you will not have paid your partner or child to cook, clean, or otherwise look after you. But if these and other activities are ones that, in the absence of the accident, you would have contributed to or done for yourself, the law allows you to recover payment on their behalf as part of your CRPS compensation claim.
Adaptations, aids and equipment
Typical adaptation can include ramps and widened doorways to improve access, stairlifts, larger or easier access baths and showers and modified-height work surfaces.
There are numerous disability aids and equipment which make living with CRPS just that much easier. Some are inexpensive; some very expensive. Common ones we regularly claim successfully are:
- Smart Crutches;
- Loopwheels for wheelchairs;
- perching stools;
- specialist beds and chairs;
- grab rails;
- disability scooters;
- rough terrain scooters; and
- driver-adaptations for cars.
Any of these already purchased or that have been recommended for the future should be included in your CRPS compensation claim.
Interest
Your CRPS compensation solicitor will advise you on your entitlement to interest on your damages.
“It’s difficult to believe it’s over! My union solicitors were an utter joke but you’ve been unbelievable from start to finish. I’m so pleased I finally plucked up the courage to call you.” TW (£735,000 compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
Future Loss
Future losses are those that you will incur after your claim settles. In almost every case, your future losses form by far and away the largest part of your CRPS compensation claim.
In calculating future loss the law attempts to predict what is likely to happen in the future, as compared to what would most likely have happened if you had not developed CRPS.
Your future losses are likely to comprise a continuation of your past losses plus a number of other heads of loss, depending upon your circumstances. In broad terms, the calculation will usually be the annual loss/cost of each item, projected forward to a certain point in the future. This will might be the term of your expected life expectancy or nominal date of retirement, depending upon the type of loss.
These calculations are inevitably lengthy and complex and this is another reason why you should only instruct a specialist CRPS compensation claim lawyer.
What do future losses include?
Typically, your CRPS compensation claim for future loss will include (but is not limited to):
- Loss of earnings – including loss of chance of promotion and career progression;
- Loss of pension;
- The cost of future treatment;
- The cost of care, including gardening, DIY and decorating;
- Case management;
- Adaptations, disability aids and equipment;
- Child care;
- Dog walking;
- The additional cost of holidays – going on holiday will no longer be as straightforward as before you developed CRPS. Not only will your choice of holiday be far more restricted, but the cost is likely to be greater. You will need a larger hotel room to help you mobilise, assistance with luggage, a business class seat on your flight will provide you with additional elbow and leg room – the list goes on. These should be investigated by your CRPS compensation lawyer and included in your claim.
“Andrew, I feel so lucky to have found you. What a difference you made! Let’s face it, with [previous solicitors] the claim was heading for the rocks. Thank you so much.” TR (£430,000 compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
How much CRPS compensation will you receive?
Unfortunately, this is not easy to answer until all of the evidence is available. However, as a result of the devastating effect that CRPS has on every aspect of your life, total compensation amounts are usually high, typically well into six figures or seven figures.
Compensation amounts for CRPS do vary from person to person, often considerably. This is for a host of reasons – no two people are the same. Some will, for example, have had a better response to treatment, will require less help than others, or will be able to continue working. All of these issues can and will affect the amount of compensation recoverable. However, we work hard to recover the maximum amount possible to protect you and your family financially for the future.
How long does the CRPS compensation process take?
Almost all of our clients begin their CRPS compensation claims with non-specialist law firms; usually, the large factory-type law firms that advertise in the media. Unfortunately, not only do their lack of knowledge and understanding and generally poor standards damage to your claim, but their corner-cutting actually delays the time to settlement. This is because when we take over your claim there is inevitably a lot of work for us to do initially in order to put right all of the problems they have created to get the claim back on track.
Of course, as we have said above, every claim is different and that affects and determines the amount of evidence that is required in each individual case before we can advise you accurately on the value of your claim. Avoid any solicitor who claims to be able to value your claim accurately at the outset. This is impossible and is a clear demonstration that they are not a specialist CRPS compensation claim solicitor.
Obstructive insurance companies
Another factor relevant to time is that most defendant insurance companies will throw every possible obstacle in your path in an attempt to undermine you and your claim and delay settlement. We are experts at anticipating and navigating around these obstacles, but this all affects the time to settlement.
Put simply, we settle claims as quickly as possible but without cutting corners and never losing sight of the overriding importance of maximising the amount of CRPS compensation that you need to protect you and your family for the future. In the meantime, we always do our best to keep you afloat financially with interim payments.
“What a relief it was to find you! My last solicitors didn’t have a clue what they were talking about and I really don’t think they even believed me. I just got the feeling that they wanted the my claim settled as soon as possible, whatever the implications for me.” JK (£700,000 compensation recovered for CRPS), Client
Contact
We are leading solicitors for compensation claims involving Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. We have a proven track record of securing for our clients the very best treatment and the maximum compensation they need and deserve to protect them and their families for the future.
If you need a specialist CRPS lawyer to represent you, please call us today on 01225 462871 to see how we can help.