ABSTRACT

The development of the gamut of topics covered in previous chapters has evolved largely through a combination of academic interest and necessity of clinical practice. Increasingly, however, legal practitioners have become aware of psychology’s contribution to the formulation and presentation of individual cases (see, for example, Muller et al., 1984). Gudjonsson (1985) indicated demands from courts for expert psychological testimony to be increasing in both volume and range of topics. Any comment on the frequency of psychologists’ legal involvement must also acknowledge the proportion of civil cases in which the parties eventually agree an outcome prior to (albeit on the morning of) a formal court hearing. A sizeable number of all such cases will be claims for compensation, and these include complaints based on alleged head injury or neurological impairment which require the skills of a neuropsychologist. A Working Party Report of the Medical Disability Society (1988) estimated there to be 85 survivors of head injury in Britain each week and that in every average health district of 250,000 people, there would be on average 230-345 disabled survivors, with 20 new severely and 44 new moderately severely brain-injured patients each year. Historically, the state has shown little interest in the plight of the head-injured-either for victims or their families. However, adequate compensation can mean the difference between subsistence and some financial security. Financial compensation can greatly enhance the availability of assistance and potential rehabilitation. At present, various systems exist in Britain by which financial compensation may be claimed by the victim of an accident. These are as follows:

1 The Social Security System As noted by Rogers (1989), this is ‘extraordinarily complicated’ at present. For non-industrial injuries, the primary short-term benefit for sickness or injury is paid, at least in the first instance, by employers. An employee who is unfit for work may claim from his or her employer a sum for a maximum of twenty-eight weeks in any tax year. Employers may later recoup statutory sick payments by deduction from National Insurance contributions. The claimant who is not entitled to statutory sick pay may draw twenty-eight weeks of

‘sickness benefit’, which at the end of the period is replaced by ‘invalidity benefit’. In addition, industrial injuries are covered by the Industrial Injuries Scheme, which provides for payment of ‘disablement benefit’ to an injured worker, or, in the case of fatal accidents, of ‘industrial death benefit’ to his or her dependents. With injury, the basic condition of award is that it was caused by accident ‘arising out of, and in the course of, employment’.