Recovering compensation for professional and semi-professional sportsmen and women can be a complex process. I recently read a very interesting case write up from 2008 concerning a young man with a promising career ahead of him in top-flight football, who, as the result of a horrific tackle, was left unable to continue his career.
The young footballer in the article had been a member of Manchester United’s Youth academy and had been a member of the team that won the 2003 FA Youth Cup. From the evidence given to the court presiding over his case, he clearly had the potential to have a very successful career playing in the Premiership or Championship.
Shortly after winning the FA youth cup, the footballer had been involved in a reserve team match against Middlesborough FC reserves. It was his first starting match with the Manchester United reserves. Unfortunately, during this match he was tackled by one of the Middlesborough defenders and broke the tibia and fibula bones in his right leg. Despite his promising career before the injury, his attempts to regain his previous form after recovering from the injury were unsuccessful and after unsatisfactory stints playing for teams in New Zealand and Europe he retired from football and began re-training for an alternative career in journalism.
The young man brought a claim for the lost earnings he suffered through not being able to pursue his career as a top flight professional footballer. The sums awarded in this claim (around £3.8 million) are larger than most personal injury claimants would expect to receive, due to both the claimant’s age (he was right at the start of his working life at the time of the injury) and his profession (very few of us will have the chance to be professional footballers). However the case shows the implications that a claim for lost earnings can have when it is included in your personal injury compensation claim.
Calculating lost earnings is a very complex task and is usually decided by the judge at a court hearing, based on evidence from both the defendant’s legal team and the claimant’s solicitors. A claim for lost earnings must take into account how much the accident victim was earning at the time of the accident and how much they had earned up to that point in their career. To this figure the judge must allow for any potential bonuses or promotions that the injured person might have been in line for but that they will now be unable to attain. Lastly, any current earnings that the injured person is making must be subtracted, so that the final amount is the difference between what they expected to earn pre-accident and what they actually earn post-accident.
With over 25 years representing people injured in non-fault accidents, Camps Solicitors has the professional expertise to ensure that whatever your injury, you will receive all the compensation you deserve, including any loss of future earnings. Call our offices now on 0800 092 8586 and one of our staff members will be able to talk you through the claims process and get your claim started.
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