Chronic Pain Claims

Chronic pain typically lasts more than three months after an injury. It could appear gradually, suddenly, or even many weeks after the original trauma. Chronic pain is different from acute, short-term pain in that it persists well after the initial injury has healed. It can have a much wider-reaching effect on the life of someone who experiences it.

Sometimes chronic pain can be managed with painkillers, but this is not always possible. Chronic pain is caused by a problem within the nervous system rather than a specifically injured body part, making it harder to locate and treat.

Chronic pain doesn’t exist in isolation and can cause several health problems, both cognitive and physical. These include:

• Depression, anxiety, and other psychological conditions
• Cognitive impairment
• Weakness
• Sleeplessness
• A weakened immune system.

These effects can be mentally and physically exhausting, taking a significant toll on your quality of life. Our solicitors understand this and can put you in touch with pain specialists to help you learn to cope with the condition.

Our experience in chronic pain covers many kinds and causes of chronic pain, so we will know how to fight for your compensation claim. There are lots of different kinds of chronic pain, but the most common are:

• Somatic pain: This is caused by an injury to the skin, muscle, or soft tissue, and includes headaches.
• Visceral pain: Visceral pain comes from internal organs and can sometimes spread to other areas of the body. The nature of the pain receptors on internal organs means that visceral pain is often difficult to locate.
• Neuropathic pain: Nerve damage causes neuropathic pain, which is when nerve fibres send the wrong pain signals to other parts of the body.
• Fibromyalgia: This is a chronic pain condition that can be inflamed by injury.

Most cases of chronic pain diagnosis come about because of injuries sustained in an accident. Our personal injury solicitors often help clients who have developed chronic pain after:

• An accident in the workplace
• A road traffic accident
• Whiplash
• A slip, trip or fall
• A military accident.

It’s often difficult to diagnose a chronic pain condition straight after a traumatic accident, as the symptoms can be mistaken for acute pain. Only after weeks or months does it become clear that someone has chronic pain. Anyone can get chronic pain at any age, from children to adults. Nobody knows why some people get chronic pain and others don’t.

We are in contact with medical experts who understand the causes and triggers associated with chronic pain. With their help, we will be able to establish who was to blame for your condition and battle to get the compensation you deserve.

In most cases, there’s a time limit of three years to make a claim, starting from when you first developed a chronic pain condition (or became aware that you had one). In cases involving children, you can claim at any time until they are 18—the three-year time limit begins on their 18th birthday.

If your chronic pain was caused by an accident or incident abroad, the three-year time limit can be shorter, so it’s important to contact us as soon as possible so that we can begin to investigate your claim.