Bargo: when you might need an injury compensation lawyer

Two measurements do most of the work when an injury is serious. One is the threshold line, which separates soft tissue and some psychological injuries from everything else. The other is whole person impairment, a percentage that describes lasting impairment. Between them, they affect how long statutory benefits can run and what a damages claim, if you have one, can include.

A crash can cause psychological injury as well as physical injury, and sometimes instead of it. Some psychological injuries are classed as threshold injuries; others are not, depending on the diagnosis. Anxiety, low mood, flashbacks or fear of driving are worth having recorded early, so the injury is properly identified in the claim rather than surfacing months later.

From 1 April 2023, the scheme uses the term threshold injury, which replaced the old term minor injury. A threshold injury is generally a soft tissue injury, a threshold psychological injury, or both. Soft tissue here means muscles, tendons, ligaments and similar tissue. Nerve damage is excluded, and so is a full or partial tear of a tendon, ligament, meniscus or cartilage.

Which side you're on matters. For accidents from 1 April 2023, statutory benefits for a threshold injury generally last up to 52 weeks. For accidents between 1 December 2017 and 31 March 2023, the limit was 26 weeks. If your injury is more than threshold and you weren't mostly at fault, benefits can generally continue for longer, and a damages claim may be possible.

There's usually no single moment when WPI is measured. Opinions may come from reports you obtain, from examinations the insurer arranges, and, where the two sides disagree, from a medical assessment through the Personal Injury Commission. Timing matters, because injuries can improve or worsen for months. A lawyer can advise whether an assessment is premature before you rely on it.

• How complete and current the evidence is
• Any assessment already made, and its date
• Whether you disagree with the result, and the deadline to say so

WPI turns a lasting injury into a percentage. An assessor examines you and rates the impairment under the guidelines that apply to motor accident claims. The number doesn't reflect how hard your life has become; it reflects measurable impairment. Even so, it can decide important questions, especially whether damages for pain and suffering are possible.

Because so much can turn on a few percentage points, WPI assessments are often contested. Reports prepared for you, for the insurer and, if there's a dispute, by a medical assessor through the Personal Injury Commission may reach different figures. Keep every report, and get advice before accepting an assessment you think is wrong.

Earning capacity compares what you could have earned without the injury with what you can realistically earn now. For a tradesperson with a damaged shoulder, or an office worker with a brain injury, that gap can be large and long-lasting. Record every change to your working life: hours, duties, roles you can no longer do. Those facts sit alongside the medical evidence.

The most persuasive serious injury claims usually have consistent evidence: the same injuries described the same way from the first record to the last, with no unexplained gaps. That consistency comes from giving the full story every time you describe the injury. If a report leaves something out, raise it rather than letting it pass, and keep a note of when you did.

• The police report and your own account of the crash
• Any reports prepared for the claim
• Every Certificate of Fitness, in order
• Any impairment assessment, and your response to it