Leigh Day secures landmark legal ruling

Long-time SIA supporters and one of the charity’s trusted legal partners, Leigh Day Solicitors has secured a landmark judgment at the Court of Appeal that has significant implications for future claimants, including those with a spinal cord injury (SCI), who require special accommodation following a serious injury.

Leigh Day represented a lady called Charlotte Swift in her seven-year legal battle after she sustained serious leg injuries in a road traffic collision in 2013.  The judgment means that people who require special accommodation as a result of an injury will receive fair and reasonable compensation to purchase that property, following nearly half a century of claimants receiving inadequate damages in such cases following legal guidance by the Court of Appeal in 1989.

Grant Incles, the Personal Injury Partner at Leigh Day who represented Charlotte said: “What this case means for people who have sustained a life-changing SCI who are going through a legal case is that they can be certain, for the first time in a very long time, that the Court will provide them fair and reasonable compensation to buy the home they need to enable the best possible quality of life.”

Charlotte said: “Grant Incles and my legal team have been outstanding throughout and I will be forever grateful to them for what they’ve done and the support they’ve given me.  I’ve been put through years of stress, but today’s legal victory for people with disabilities makes it all worthwhile.”

Personal injury lawyers from across the sector have welcomed this judgment, and SIA would like to congratulate everyone at Leigh Day Solicitors who were involved in supporting Charlotte Swift and working with her to achieve this outstanding result.