Personal injury law exists to ensure that anyone injured in a no-fault accident receives compensation for their pain and suffering and any financial losses. But what if the accident did not cause a new injury but worsened a pre-existing one? Can you still bring a personal injury compensation claim against those responsible?
In short, ‘yes, you can’ (and should) claim compensation if an accident that was not your fault aggravated a pre-existing injury. While claiming compensation for a pre-existing condition, made worse by an accident, can sometimes be a little more difficult than bringing a claim for a new injury, it’s still a worthwhile thing to do.
If your claim is successful, you will be awarded compensation for the additional pain and suffering the accident has caused. In addition, if the injury leads to you incurring extra financial losses, provided you have the evidence to support your claim, you will be compensated for those items of damage, too.
At Mooneerams Solicitors, we are experts in pursuing personal injury claims for people injured in accidents that were not their fault. With the expertise we’ve built over 20 years, we will ensure you receive the maximum compensation you deserve. We are purely personal injury solicitors. We don’t do anything else – so we are very good at what we do; we have to be!
In what circumstances can I claim compensation if an accident worsens a pre-existing injury?
You can bring a personal injury claim if your accident:
- aggravated a pre-existing medical condition, or,
- accelerated the onset of symptoms from a pre-existing injury or illness.
By ‘accelerated’, we mean that the effects of the pre-existing condition brought forward symptoms of an injury that would have got worse anyway, but not until a later date, often much later in life.
What is the ‘Eggshell Skull Rule’?
It doesn’t matter if the accident had a more severe impact on you because of your medical history or susceptibility to certain conditions; the person responsible must compensate you for the pain and suffering they caused. According to the law, they must ‘take their victim as they find them’.
Let’s suppose a haemophiliac (whose body is unable to form blood clots, leading to prolonged bleeding) suffers bumps and bruises in an accident that causes excessive internal bleeding and damage to the injured person’s joints and muscles.
The tortfeasor (the person who caused the accident) will not be successful in arguing that they shouldn’t be liable to pay the injured person compensation for the full extent of their injuries because only one in 2000 people in the UK have a diagnosed bleeding disorder.
They must ‘take their victim as they find them’, which means they are liable to compensate the accident victim for the full extent of the injuries caused, even though those injuries are unexpectedly serious due to a pre-existing condition that the tortfeasor knew nothing about!
Examples of common pre-existing conditions that may be exacerbated or accelerated in the event of a further accident
- Back injuries – chronic back pain or slipped discs can be made significantly worse by a trip, slip or fall accident or a road traffic accident.
- Arthritis – if someone with arthritis is involved in an accident that causes an impact on an arthritic joint, they may suffer an aggravation of their arthritis.
- Herniated Discs – A herniated disc is perhaps better known as a slipped Slipped discs are particularly vulnerable to further injury if the sufferer is in, say, a car accident, causing severe pain and potential nerve damage where previously there was none.
- Psychological Conditions – Involvement in an accident may exacerbate a pre-existing psychological condition.
- Osteoporosis – People with osteoporosis suffer from having fragile bones, which increases the risk of fractures if subjected to relatively innocuous impacts.
- Degenerative Conditions – Someone with a degenerative spinal condition will very likely suffer from increasing symptoms in the future. If they are involved in, for instance, an accident at work that brings those symptoms on sooner than expected, they may be entitled to compensation.
- Existing injury Exacerbated – If an accident causes an existing accident injury to worsen and delays recovery, the person involved may be entitled to claim compensation even though the other party could not have known about their current condition.
Crucially, though, in all the above cases, the fact of the existing condition may impact the level of compensation you can expect. We discuss this in more detail later.
How will my pre-existing condition affect my claim?
The litigation process for a personal injury claim involving a pre-existing condition is the same as for any other. However, your case might be more difficult to prove than if the accident caused your injuries entirely.
Insurance companies will do everything possible to either avoid paying compensation to personal injury victims or minimise the compensation they pay out. When a claimant has a pre-existing condition, the insurance company often denies liability by claiming that the victim’s injuries were not caused by the accident but were wholly a result of the pre-existing injury.
Say, for example, you suffered from chronic back pain before your accident, but your symptoms worsened afterwards. In all likelihood, the insurance company will contend that since you already had problems with your back, the pain and suffering you are experiencing result from your pre-existing condition and not from the accident.
Issues like these complicate a personal injury claim but can be overcome as long as the appropriate medical evidence is obtained.
How can I prove that an accident made my pre-existing condition worse?
Medical evidence plays a key role in all personal injury cases. It’s especially important when the claim is based on the fact that the accident made a pre-existing condition worse.
To support your claim for compensation, your personal injury solicitor will obtain your comprehensive medical records to assess how the condition affected your life before your accident.
They will then likely send you for a consultation with a medical expert, usually a Consultant, who will provide a medical report detailing how your injuries are likely to affect your prognosis and quality of life.
In addition, your solicitors will gather further evidence to support your claim and prove how the accident worsened your pre-existing condition. Depending on the circumstances, this might include evidence showing that you require surgery on a condition that was previously manageable or had to stop work due to the pain brought on by the accident.
How much compensation will I receive if an accident made a pre-existing condition worse?
Personal injury compensation aims to put the accident victim back in the position they would have been in had their accident not happened. Essentially, someone whose pre-existing condition has been exacerbated should be no worse off as a result of being involved in an incident for which they were not to blame.
In straightforward cases where the accident victim had no pre-existing conditions, compensation to cover all their pain, suffering, and financial losses will be awarded.
However, in situations where the injured person was suffering pain due to a pre-existing condition or where it is likely they would have begun to experience symptoms at some point in the future, regardless of the accident, calculating compensation can be more of a challenge.
While those responsible for the accident must compensate the victim for the problems their negligence caused, they are not obliged to compensate them for anything the accident did not cause. To do so would essentially award the victim a windfall, which is not the aim of a personal injury compensation claim.
Accordingly, to value a claim with a pre-existing condition, a personal injury solicitor must distinguish between the pain, suffering, and losses resulting from the pre-existing condition and those caused by the exacerbation of the condition caused by the accident. The basis on which they do this varies depending on the circumstances of the case.
For example, suppose your symptoms were accelerated by the accident. In that case, you might be entitled to full compensation for the period until the symptoms would have arisen anyway and nothing thereafter.
To argue cases like this with authority, your solicitor must appoint the right medical expert to determine to what extent the condition has worsened because of the accident. Only then will it be possible to counter the arguments put forward by the insurers of the person responsible for the accident.
At Mooneerams Solicitors, we have vast experience handling cases where a pre-existing accident has aggravated a pre-existing condition. We handle most personal injury cases on a No Win No Fee basis.
Call us on 029 2048 3615 or contact us online.
