Suffering a needless injury can cost people and their families money, whether it’s struggling to pay the bills while they recover, or needing special help because of their injuries such as extra childcare, equipment, or treatments. When injured people claim compensation, this is what some of the money is for.

But as well as the financial impact of an injury, there is also the physical and emotional impact. The victim’s life has been turned upside down, and maybe had its course altered forever, because someone else did not take proper care. So the law on needless injuries does its best to provide redress for people for this pain and suffering too.

Compensation is calculated carefully by the courts, with damages split into three parts:

• Special damages for past losses. These are the upfront costs an injured person has incurred since being injured and before settling the claim, such as for medications, extra childcare, and medical treatment.
• Special damages for future losses. This covers the anticipated costs looking ahead, including missed career opportunities because of the injury, therapies, care, or special equipment such as prosthetics.
• General damages. These damages are to compensate for ‘pain, suffering, and loss of amenity’. In other words, it compensates for the unnecessary suffering, and the detrimental impact the negligence has had on that person’s quality of life.

Special damages take care of the financial impact of a needless injury, and general damages are there for the rest – the impact on the injured person’s life as they knew it.  

General damages are obviously trickier to quantify than special damages, which relate to specific things for which the cost is known, such as earnings, or equipment. The courts have a solution of looking at similar cases and applying the Judicial College Guidelines for calculating general damages. The Judicial College is the body in England and Wales responsible for training and providing ongoing support to the judiciary. It periodically publishes guideline amounts to be paid for injuries for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity i.e. the general damages.

But what price would you would accept for being in pain, losing an eye, or being unable to get around without the aid of a wheelchair? 

In reality, victims who suffer serious injuries would choose for their life to go back to the way it was before over any amount of money. Compensation is paid to try to do this, so far as possible. It is meant to restore an injured victim of negligence back to the position they were in before the negligence. It is the best means the law has to right the wrongs inflicted on victims of negligence.

The issue of losing bodily integrity will be highlighted during this year’s Injury Awareness Week (23-27 June). On top of everything else an injured person must navigate, there is often a sense of violation to overcome as well. Injuries caused by negligence are imposed on people, stripping them of the autonomy they should have over their own bodies.

A healthy body is something some of us could be accused of taking for granted. We don’t give a second thought to being able to walk, run, pick up our children or play our favourite sport.

Money in itself is not something which can replace adequately what has been lost, in terms of the ability to do some of the things you could do before. But it does make getting back to a good life possible.

It is vital to protect the law on personal injury so if the worse were to happen, people have the compensation they need to rebuild their lives as best they can.

Support Injury Awareness Week 2025 on social media. Find APIL’s content on APIL’s X/Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn channels, as well as the dedicated Injury Awareness Facebook page. All are invited to share their own Injury Awareness Week content. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #IAWeek2025.

Matthew Tuff

President