Solicitors for Care & Assistance

Yes, where the injury has left you needing help you would not otherwise have required. Care and assistance is a form of special damages, which means it compensates for the cost the injury has placed on you rather than for the injury itself. It can cover care already provided and care you are likely to need in future. What matters is that the help was reasonably necessary because of the injury, and that the need is supported by evidence.

Yes, and this is one of the most commonly claimed heads of loss. Where a family member has provided care, help around the house or personal assistance that you would otherwise have needed to pay a professional for, that care can be claimed even though no money changed hands. The value is usually assessed against what a professional carer would have charged for the same help, and it can cover help already given as well as help you will need going forward.

It is wider than personal care alone. It can include help with washing and dressing, preparing meals, cleaning, laundry, shopping, gardening, driving to appointments, and caring for children where the injury has left you unable to manage as before. It also includes the additional care a seriously injured child may need, and the support a spouse or partner provides. Anything you can no longer do for yourself, or can only do with difficulty or pain, is worth looking at.

Not where the care was provided by family. Because the claim reflects the value of the help rather than money you paid out, receipts are not the evidence that matters. What matters is a clear record of what was done, by whom, and for how long, supported by the medical evidence that the help was needed. A simple diary kept by the person providing the care is often the most useful document in these claims.

The position depends on the benefit. Some payments, such as certain care related benefits, are not deducted from this head of loss, while others are. It is important to tell your solicitor exactly what you receive, because the rules differ and getting it wrong can lead to an overstatement of the claim or an understatement of what you recover. This is a technical area where proper advice matters.

Yes, where the medical evidence supports that you will need care going forward. Future care is often the largest element of a serious injury claim, particularly where the injury is permanent. It is calculated from expert evidence setting out what care is reasonably required, how many hours per week, and for how long. Where the care is expected to continue for life, the calculation accounts for that duration and can require actuarial evidence on life expectancy.

Usually a care expert, sometimes called a care and occupational therapy expert. They assess what you can and cannot do, what help is reasonably necessary, and how that is likely to change. Their report sets out the care package in hours, which the claim is then calculated from. In serious cases the care expert may work alongside a case manager who coordinates the actual provision of care and rehabilitation.

Yes, in appropriate cases. Where a parent is injured and unable to care for their children as they normally would, the additional care provided by a partner, grandparent or paid carer can form part of the claim. The same applies where a seriously injured child needs more care than a child of that age normally would. These losses are real and they are regularly claimed.

It is worked out by reference to the commercial rate for the help provided, which is essentially what it would have cost to pay a professional carer to do the same work. The number of hours is established from the care evidence. For example, if a family member provided ten hours of help a week for six months, the claim reflects the cost of ten hours of care a week for that period at the appropriate rate. It is not the same as the carer's lost earnings unless those are claimed separately.

Yes. Care and assistance is simply one element of the compensation, funded in the same way as the rest. Suitable claims may be accepted under a Conditional Fee Agreement, commonly called No Win No Fee, subject to an assessment of liability, the evidence and the prospects of success. If the claim succeeds, a success fee may be payable, and in many personal injury claims the legal cap is 25% of the relevant categories of damages including VAT.