In order to help our clients bring their personal injury claims, we engage independent medical experts to produce reports about the injuries sustained.
How do we work with medical experts?
The involvement of medical experts or medico-legal experts in a personal injury claim can be vital. They are instructed to independently determine the cause of, and the extent of, your injuries, which will allow your solicitor to better assess the likelihood of success in bringing a claim on your behalf and the amount of compensation you should be asking for. They can also provide recommendations for rehabilitation, treatment or adaptations to the workplace or home that will be helpful to you.
The type of expert instructed will depend on the type of injury suffered and/or part of the body affected. We appoint medical experts to help us understand the immediate and long-term impact of an injury. Medical experts have to review your medical records to ensure they have the ‘full picture’ of how your injuries have affected you. Some cases require input from multiple experts. It doesn’t matter who pays the expert’s fees, their duty is to the court, not the person paying them, which is why they must remain impartial when assessing an injured person’s injuries.
Here we briefly set out some of the most commonly used expert disciplines, and the reasons why we may need to use them:
Orthopaedic consultant or surgeon
An orthopaedic consultant or surgeon specialises in diagnosing conditions affecting bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles. We will often instruct orthopaedic consultants with specialist interests, such as ankle, wrist or shoulder expertise. Orthopaedic consultants can also be instructed initially to deal with limb loss claims or to deal with more specific and serious injuries including spinal or pelvis and hip injuries.
Accident & Emergency consultants
An Accident & Emergency consultant may be instructed where there are numerous injuries and to diagnose a wide range of injuries including head injuries, burns, general trauma and wounds. A&E consultants can be instructed to narrow down what additional medical evidence might be needed or to avoid the need for multiple appointments. They can also cover internal injuries.
Maxillofacial surgeons
Maxillofacial surgeons or oral and maxillofacial surgeons diagnose injuries to the mouth, jaw, face and neck. They may also advise on any dental work or other treatment required. They can be instructed following very serious road traffic collisions and are often instructed where a horse has caused injury to the face and teeth.
Plastic surgeons
Plastic surgeons are instructed to report on burns and scarring and which procedures can assist with restoring the body’s normal appearance and function. They can advise on both surgical and non-surgical procedures that might be beneficial, and cosmetics that might help. Plastic surgeons can discuss whether skin grafts might be necessary or where they have already taken place, how the resulting scarring is likely to develop long term.
What does this mean for our clients?
We always discuss with clients which medical expert (or experts) are appropriate to instruct as we progress their claim. Appointments can be arranged locally or even at home in some circumstances.
Once an examination has taken place, we will receive a medico-legal report, which will be discussed with our clients before being disclosed to the relevant parties and used to value the level of compensation they might expect to receive.
At Enable Law we always go above and beyond to support our clients and identify the right support and equipment to get their lives back on track following their injury. We always listen to what matters to them and use our wider network to find solutions that meet their needs. Our goal is not to just help clients improve their lives but to get them back to as close as possible to where they would have been had their injury never happened. It is what matters to them that is important to us, and this can differ widely from one person to another. From finding adapted ways to get someone back into sailing to helping them get back into horseback riding or being able to continue travelling the world we have links with the right experts to help us understand what it will take so we can provision for money to make these things happen through their claim.
To have a free confidential chat with Emma Barnes or another member of our personal injury team call us on 0800 044 8488 or fill in our contact form so we can call you back at a time convenient for you.
