Case Study - Loss of earnings award following initial rejection

Our client, the applicant, submitted her own application without legal representation and was offered £27,500 for psychological injury and a pregnancy arising from sexual abuse by her uncle when she was a teenager.

Upon receipt of this offer she contacted us for legal advice. The issue which needed to be determined was her entitlement to a loss of earnings award.

The CICA had rejected her claim for this loss on the basis that there was ‘insufficient evidence to show that the applicant has not worked as a direct result of the sexual abuse suffered back in 1967-72, medical evidence shows a combination of alcoholism, epilepsy, financial, marital, family and other health problems.’ and so it was their view that she was unable to work due to reasons associated with other life factors.

Our client had managed to work on and off throughout her life until 2007 when she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, bi-polar and PTSD after she developed seizures related to the abuse. She had not worked since then and was in receipt of ESA and PIP benefits.

We obtained a medical expert report from a Consultant Psychologist for our client, and we were able to successfully argue that the abuse she had suffered did not have to be the sole contributory factor to the state of her mental health and therefore for her being unable to work, but that it had merely to be significant.

Consequently, with the medical evidence we presented, the CICA agreed that our client had suffered loss of earnings related to the abuse she suffered.

Our client received an additional £87,192 in compensation without the need for a formal hearing.

This case is significant as it shows that the CICA will not always direct that medical evidence is necessary for the claim to be properly investigated and a lay person would not necessarily have the legal knowledge to know how to obtain this evidence or indeed have the funds to pay for the report.