For a sports professional, an injury can be devastating or even career-ending. It may be that you will no longer be able to attain the level of performance that you were on track to achieve, or that you are no longer able to participate in any sport at all. A sports career may be the only type of work that you had contemplated before the injury and the loss of this can be life-changing, both financially and psychologically.
Where the sport was played at an amateur level, the inability to continue in the sport or other physical activities can be also very difficult to come to terms with. Amateur sports players often enjoy active careers that utilize their athletic abilities and may find it difficult to find alternative careers after their injuries.
Our specialist medical negligence solicitors are experienced in succeeding with these often complex claims and are sensitive to the particular concerns of the sports person.
Why should I instruct Bolt Burdon Kemp for a Sports Injury claim?
Our specialist solicitors are sensitive to the difficulties and pressures facing sports people. After the injury, there may be a pressure to return to fitness and get back into the sport as soon as possible. This may be from the club, who may also be your employer (adding financial pressure), or from you yourself, who as a determined individual, may want to return to achieving results. In some circumstances permitting a player to return to sport too soon may itself constitute negligence. For example, if medics working for the club sign off a sports professional as fit to participate too soon, playing and training with an injury that has not fully healed may aggravate the injury with serious long term consequences.
Our solicitors understand the unique types of loss that may be incurred by sports people. Sport will often play a key role in the individual’s social and professional life. Where injuries sustained as a result of medical negligence prevent a player from returning to their sport the financial, social and psychological impact can be profound.
Sports professionals may have complex earning arrangements that for example may include a basic salary and a variety of performance related bonuses or benefits. Depending on your level of participation in your chosen sport and your media profile, you may also earn additional income through merchandising and or appearance fees. The earlier that an injury occurs during a sports career, the more difficult it can be to predict what sporting and financial success would have been achieved had the negligence not occurred. Often the largest sums of compensation that can be claimed in such cases is for the difference between what a sports professional would have achieved but for the negligence, and what they will now actually be able to achieve financially.
Amateur sports players will often have careers utilizing their physical fitness and abilities which may also be decimated by injury.
We understand that money can never truly replace the loss suffered by an ambitious and driven sports player, but we are committed to achieving the highest levels of compensation possible and to providing support to our clients when they trying to cope with enormous changes in their lives whilst providing instructions on their respective claims.
Claims on behalf of sports professionals often rely heavily on obtaining thorough witness statements from fellow players, their managers, and where possible, match officials. This evidence may relate to the original injury itself, or to your abilities and performance. We understand the importance of obtaining detailed factual and expert evidence on the standard of the treatment in a swift and efficient manner. Our aim is to demonstrate at the earliest opportunity that the treatment provided was substandard and resulted in further injury and loss.
