Fractured Femur in a Public Place Compensation Payouts
Have you suffered a broken femur in a public place from an accident that wasn’t your fault? If so, you could make a personal injury claim for a fractured femur.
Claim for fractured femur guide
When you’re involved in an accident in a public place, it can be difficult to know how to start a claim for compensation. If you feel you have suffered an injury from negligence, you may be able to make a public accident claim to seek compensation.
An accident in a public place can be difficult to recover from, especially when it involves a broken bone. A broken leg or a broken femur injury can be incredibly debilitating because of how much it affects your movement and your ability to function normally. Due to this, compensation claims can be launched if sufficient proof is provided showing that the injury was not your fault.
Don’t just rely on a personal injury calculator. Our advisors offer free legal advice 24/7 so, if you want to see if you can claim, they’ll be available at a time that suits you.
To see if you can claim, call us on 0800 408 7825. Alternatively, please read on.
Choose A Section
- A Guide On How To Claim For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place
- What Is A Fractured Femur?
- How You Could Fracture Your Femur In A Public Place
- Case Study – £24,000 Fractured Femur In A Public Place Accident
- When Could You Also Claim For Special Damages?
- Calculating Compensation For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place Accident
- No Win No Fee Claims For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place
- How To Make A Public Accident Claim
- Contact Us For Free Legal Advice
- Need Some Help
- Public Accident Claim FAQs
A Guide On How To Claim For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place
Our guide on making a claim for a fractured femur in public will attempt to illustrate the claims process and let you know what you need to do to get the compensation you deserve. We will start by looking at what a fractured femur is, the symptoms and how an injury of this type may be treated.
Next, we will look at the duty of care that is owed to you in a public place. We’ll examine how this duty of care could be breached, resulting in an accident that causes injury.
We will go on to look at a case study in which a person who fractures their femur in a public place receives a compensation settlement. This case study will illustrate the process of claiming compensation from the accident taking place to the compensation being paid.
We will then go on to look at how compensation is calculated. We will pay particular focus to the difference between general and special damages and how each is valued.
Our guide will finish by looking at the benefits that a No Win No Fee agreement can offer you. To summarise, we will provide you with some useful resources and answer some commonly asked questions about claiming for a fractured femur in a public place.
What Is A Fractured Femur?
Surgery is often the recommended treatment for a broken femur. In many cases, the hip will either need to be replaced or the fracture fixed with plates and screws.
The kind of surgery you will have depends on several factors:
- The location of the break on the femur bone
- Your age
- The level of mobility you had before the accident
- The condition of the bone and joint
After surgery, you will have a care team to help you fully heal from a broken femur injury. A rehabilitation programme with targets and goals will be formed. The eventual aim of this is for you to regain your mobility and strength.
The amount of time you will spend in the hospital can vary. A person who is otherwise healthy may be discharged in as little as a week, whereas someone with existing mobility problems may need to stay in hospital for longer.
The fractured bone can take months to fully recover from, and, in some cases, you may not be able to work until you’ve regained full mobility. This can cause a great deal of frustration, particularly if the accident in which you were injured was the result of someone else’s negligence.
How You Could Fracture Your Femur In A Public Place
You may assume that while you’re in public, there’s nobody who has a responsibility to ensure your safety but you. But this isn’t the case; the people in control of public spaces have a responsibility to ensure the safety of those who use them for the purpose intended. Public places where this responsibility applies include:
- Shops and supermarkets
- Public parks
- Cinemas and theatres
- Pubs and restaurants
Depending on when or how your injury is sustained, you may be able to make a personal injury claim. Some establishments will have public liability insurance to cover them in this instance, although it is not a legal requirement for them to do so.
Accidents in public places can take many different forms. But if you can show that your injuries were caused directly by someone neglecting the duty of care they owed you, then you may be able to claim.
The Duty Of Care Of Those In Control Of Public Spaces
The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 clearly outlines the responsibilities that a person in control of a public space (the “occupier”) owes to the public. They need to provide every visitor with the same “common duty of care”, which includes:
- Making sure every visitor is safe while using the premises
- Alerting visitors to any potential risks that can’t be avoided (for instance, through warning signs)
- Being aware that children will be less careful than adults and taking this into account when considering their safety
There is no hard and fast rule that dictates who the occupier of a public space is. However, it should be someone who was both able to foresee that an accident could have taken place and who was able to take steps to prevent the accident from happening. If you can show that your injury was caused by the negligence of the person who was responsible for your safety, then you may be able to make a claim.
How Can Occupiers Breach Their Duty Of Care?
If the occupier fails to take the proper steps to ensure the safety of those using their premises, then this is a breach of their duty of care. Examples of possible breaches include:
- A slip, trip or fall caused by a faulty bannister
- An injury due to a warning sign not being present when required
- A wet floor didn’t have the required warning, leading to a bad fall.
- Leaving a faulty door without replacing or repairing it, leading to an accident causing injury.
Regular risk assessments should be carried out to ensure that every hazard which poses a risk of injury has been identified, considered and actioned upon if needed.
The Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) recovers social security benefits and, in some cases, NHS costs where the injured person has received compensation. As you can see above, in 2019/20, there were over 83,000 public accident cases settled by the CRU. Although these figures don’t tell us how many accidents occur in public in total each year, the data provided by the CRU give an idea of the prevalence of these kinds of accidents.
Case Study – £24,000 Fractured Femur In A Public Place Accident
One day while walking in the park, Mr Bellarin, a 46-year-old building site manager, stopped with his family at a cafe for a drink before heading home. Mr Bellarin was walking towards the counter when a wet patch on the floor caused him to fall. The momentum made him skid and crash into a table. The corner of the large table then fell onto his right leg.
Mr Bellarin was in intense, agonising pain. A member of staff quickly called for an ambulance. As he looked around, he noticed that there were no warning signs for the spillage. His wife took pictures of the scene as they waited.
The doctor confirmed that Mr Bellarin had suffered from a fracture to his femur. It was a closed fracture, but, given the severity of the injury and his age, surgery would be required.
The surgery went well, but it couldn’t fully alleviate Mr Bellarin’s concerns. A broken leg meant that he could be out of work for months recovering. Because he was confident that he wasn’t to blame for his accident or subsequent injuries, he decided to pursue legal advice about making a compensation claim.
As mentioned, Mrs Bellarin had taken photographs of the scene of the accident whilst waiting for an ambulance. This, combined with CCTV footage and an eyewitness account from a member of staff, was enough to confirm that there was no signage to indicate that the floor was wet. This meant that the cafe had neglected their duty of care towards him and that Mr Bellarin was eligible to claim.
What was Mr Bellarin compensated for?
In total, Mr Bellarin had to take four months off work. He was also made to cancel a week’s all-inclusive trip to Mexico with his wife, as his doctor advised he wasn’t fit to fly. He lost his deposit for this holiday, as well as the break he was so looking forward to.
Mr Bellarin was someone who took pride in his physical fitness, and as such, he was a member of a number of different sports clubs and gyms. Unfortunately, he was unable to make use of the facilities at his local leisure centre while he was injured. He was also forced to abandon a kickboxing class that he’d started just a couple of weeks earlier, causing him to lose out on the enrollment fee.
On top of the medications that Mr Bellarin was prescribed, he was advised by his doctor to undergo physiotherapy to increase the strength and mobility in his injured leg. After the initial 10 sessions that he was offered on the NHS, he felt some improvement. However, he felt that further sessions could benefit him greatly. He decided to pursue a second course of physiotherapy privately. As he was unable to drive, he had to rely on taxis to get him to and from his appointments.
Mr Bellarin ended up receiving £24,000 in compensation for his fractured femur. Although this settlement wasn’t able to undo the stress and inconvenience his injury caused, he felt satisfied that his pain and suffering had been acknowledged. The table below shows how the compensation Mr Bellarin received was broken down.
| General Damages | How Much? | Special Damages | How Much? |
|---|---|---|---|
| £36,770 Neck Of femur fracture and surgery | £36,770 | Loss of Earnings | £5,500 |
| Travel costs | £100 | ||
| Cancelled holiday accommodation and flights | £1,800 | ||
| Private physiotherapy | £300 | ||
| Gardening/cleaning | £100 | ||
| Gym membership | £190 | ||
| Prescriptions/medications | £50 | ||
| Wife's loss of earnings while caring for husband. | £1,690 |
The case of Mr Bellarin is purely an example of a personal injury claim. It is based on our past experiences of assessing and valuing claims, serving to illustrate how accidents can happen and how they are valued.
When Could You Also Claim For Special Damages?
When you claim compensation, your settlement will be made up of two types of damages; general damages and special damages.
Special damages are intended to compensate for the changes caused to your financial situation as a direct result of your injuries. You can claim for things such as:
- Loss of Earnings
- Loss of Future Earnings
- Travel costs
- Prescriptions/medicine
- Recreational activities that you’re now unable to attend
In order for special damages to be calculated, you need to be able to provide evidence of the losses or expenses that you’ve incurred. Anything that you aren’t able to provide proof of won’t be able to be included in your claim.
Special damages should encapsulate your entire recovery process and can only be valued once you’ve fully recovered. So, the timescale for finding this out depends on the extent of the injury. For example, receiving a valuation during a claim for a fractured femur will probably take longer than one for a broken thumb as it depends on how long it takes for you to recover.
Calculating Compensation For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place Accident
The second head of a compensation claim is general damages. These relate directly to the injury that you’ve sustained. . As such, the amount of compensation you receive will be judged on the physical pain, psychological suffering and impact the injury has had on your quality of life. If your injuries have made a pre-existing medical condition worse, this will also be considered, so make sure to inform your personal injury solicitor of this.
In order to calculate the general damages head of your claim, you’ll be invited to a medical assessment where an independent expert will look at your injuries and confirm the impact that they have had on you. Your solicitor will use the medical report from this appointment alongside the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to value your injuries. The Judicial College Guidelines are a set of guidelines to compensation bracket amounts. They cover a wide range of injuries of varying severities.
You may have noticed online that there are a range of websites offering personal injury calculators which aim to value your compensation for you. These tools can give you a rough estimation of what you could be owed. However, you’ll get a much more accurate estimation by speaking to a member of our team about the accident you were involved in.
This is because we collect the information we need to see how much you could be owed. If you’d like free legal advice or want to know if you can claim, call us today using the phone number at the top of this page.
No Win No Fee Claims For A Fractured Femur In A Public Place
Many of us have heard the phrase “No Win No Fee” in relation to personal injury claims before. But what benefits are on offer when making a claim on a No Win No Fee basis?
When a solicitor offers a No Win No Fee agreement (sometimes called a Conditional Fee Agreement), it means that there won’t be any fees for you to pay them upfront. You also won’t be asked to pay them while they’re working on your claim or if your claim is unsuccessful.
The only time you’ll be asked to cover your solicitor’s costs is if you receive compensation. Their fees will be deducted in the form of a legally capped “success fee”. This fee will be a percentage of your overall compensation, which will be decided before the claim begins.
Being offered a No Win No Fee agreement by one of our solicitors means that your claim is perceived to have a good chance of success. This is because it’s not in a solicitor’s interest to offer an agreement like this if they aren’t confident in your case; after all, if you don’t receive payment, neither do they
How To Make A Public Accident Claim
Recovering from an injury such as a fractured femur can often be difficult and aggravating. This is particularly true when the accident was someone else’s fault.
Our panel of friendly, knowledgeable advisors will answer any questions you have about the claims process. We want to put you in the best position to claim for a fractured femur sustained in a public place.
Our panel of solicitors specialise in personal injury law. Their experience and professionalism mean that you can be confident they’re doing their best to get you the compensation you’re owed.
Don’t delay – we offer free legal advice with no obligation to make a claim. Just call us, and you could get your claim started today.
Contact Us For Free Legal Advice
Use our contact details below to chat with a member of our team and see if you’re able to make a claim.
- Telephone – 0800 408 7825
- Use the live chat window at the bottom right of your screen
- Contact us through our website
Need Some Help
Please see the links below for more information.
If you’d like more information about recovering from a hip fracture, visit the NHS website.
Do you suspect you’ve broken a bone? If so, view this page for more information.
Please click here to visit the webpage for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
Are you looking for more information about how to claim compensation from the council? If so, visit our website.
To know how you can claim compensation if you’ve dislocated your shoulder in a public place, read this article.
To see how to claim for an accident at work, read our guide.
Public Accident Claim FAQs
How much does it cost to make a claim?
Making a claim doesn’t cost anything, and there’s no legal requirement to have a solicitor act on your behalf.
If you do choose legal representation, however, this can sometimes result in legal fees which need to be paid upfront. But with the No Win No Fee agreement offered by our panel of solicitors, you won’t be asked to pay your solicitor unless you receive compensation.
Will my case go to court?
This depends on a number of factors. Generally, personal injury claims can be settled out of court. However, some complex claims may go to court, particularly if there is a dispute over liability.
Is there a time limit on injury claims?
The personal injury claim time limit is three years from the date the accident took place. Children who suffer a fractured femur have three years to claim from their 18th birthday, provided a litigation friend hasn’t claimed on their behalf before this point.
How are pain and suffering calculated in personal injury?
It’s calculated using the report from the medical assessment that your solicitor will arrange for you. Your solicitor will refer to the report from this appointment as well as the guidelines set by the Judicial College in order to calculate your claim.
Thank you for reading our guide on making a claim for a fractured femur.
Guide by AD
Published by RK