APIL: Best Practice Guide on Rehabilitation

It is well known that those who suffer catastrophic, severe or life-changing injuries achieve the best possible outcome and recovery with the benefit of early rehabilitation. APIL has recently relaunched the Best Practice Guide on Rehabilitation. The 4th Edition was updated in May 2024.

What is APIL?

APIL stands for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. They are a not-for-profit campaign group dedicated to securing justice for injured people. Their statistics show that 690,000 patients were harmed in NHS safety incidents in 2021/22 (medical negligence), 551,000 road users were injured in 2022, a whopping 1,800,000 workers suffered from work-related ill health in 2022/23 and 561,000 workers suffered from work-related injuries in 2022/23.

What is the Best Practice Guide for Rehabilitation?

The position in England and Wales is that a person who has been injured is entitled to full and fair compensation for the injury sustained by a negligent party to put them, as far as possible, back in the same position they would have been in, but for the injury.

A vital tool in this process is rehabilitation, which can help people recover quicker from their injury so that they have a better quality of life and return to work or their activities and hobbies as soon as possible.

The cost of rehabilitation can be recovered from the negligent party, and the courts recognise that an injured party should not have to accept the cheapest treatment or rehabilitation but is entitled to what they reasonably need to restore their lives as far as possible to how they were prior to the incident.

The Best Practice Guide is supported by the Rehabilitation Code and the Serious Injuries Code.

The Rehabilitation Code adopts a collaborative approach between the injured party and the compensator to provide a framework for support and guidance to achieve the best outcome. This includes compensators funding initial needs assessments, sometimes before a decision on liability, and considering funding or any recommended treatment or aids and equipment.

The Serious Injuries Code will apply to more serious injuries (generally those with a value of over £250,000 in damages).

By engaging in a collaborative approach, the parties can seek to reduce the severity of the injuries and help people cope with and recover from them as best they can.

How can we help?

Lester Aldridge is a member of APIL and a signatory to the Guide to the Conduct of Cases involving Serious Injury, designed to assist with personal injury claims involving complex injuries. The commitment from the signatories is to discuss rehabilitation at the earliest opportunity and for all parties to consider effective rehabilitation and, where necessary, the appointment of an independent clinical case manager.

If you have suffered a serious or life-changing injury, we can help you access the best rehabilitation and treatment to aid or improve your recovery.

Claims of this type can be complex and difficult to investigate. The Lester Aldridge personal Injury team is experienced in making claims for people who have suffered devastating injuries to get them the compensation and support that they need.

We have access to some of the best independent experts in the country. We work quickly on the issues of fault so that interim damages payments are obtained promptly so our clients can move forward with paying for treatment and care they might need.