CASE MANAGEMENT While the Claim Waits, Life Does Not: Rehabilitation Before Liability Is Resolved Posted by 29 September 2026 While everything else is being resolved, what does this person need now? A serious injury creates two timelines. The first is legal. Liability must be investigated. Evidence gathered. Experts instructed. Positions established and, sometimes, contested. The second begins immediately. Someone is discharged from hospital. A partner becomes a carer. Stairs become an obstacle. Work stops. Children still need taking to school. Equipment arrives or does not. Several clinicians may be involved, each addressing one part of a life that has suddenly become much more complicated. The two timelines rarely move at the same speed. For the injured person and their family, that distinction matters. Rehabilitation needs do not conveniently wait for liability to be admitted.The courts have encountered this reality repeatedly. In Johnson v Berentzen, rehabilitation and care were funded and a case manager jointly instructed under the Rehabilitation Code despite liability not having been admitted. Behind that legal fact sits a much more human question: what should happen to someone’s rehabilitation while the claim is still finding its way through the legal process? The period when small problems can become large ones The weeks and months following serious injury can be unusually fragile. A person may be medically ready to leave hospital but not practically ready to return home. Their previous accommodation may no longer work. Family members may be filling gaps in care without necessarily having the training, capacity or expectation that they would become carers. There may be recommendations from physiotherapy, occupational therapy, neuropsychology, speech and language therapy or other disciplines. Equipment, transport and care arrangements can all depend upon one another. This is where case management can become particularly valuable. The task is not simply to assemble a collection of professionals around the claimant. It is to understand what matters now, what can reasonably wait, what depends upon something else happening first and how the different elements of rehabilitation fit into the person’s actual life. Sometimes the first objective is not an ideal long-term rehabilitation package. It is stability. Rehabilitation is rarely just treatment The breadth of rehabilitation becomes particularly apparent in catastrophic injury cases. In HDL v Butt, interim funding supported a specialist brain injury case manager alongside one-to-one care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, accommodation and specialist transport. That combination is revealing. Rehabilitation does not happen exclusively in a clinic. Whether someone can participate in therapy may depend upon whether they can get there. Whether they can return home may depend upon whether the home is accessible. Whether greater independence is achievable may depend upon equipment, support, confidence and the environment around them. The case manager therefore occupies an unusual position: looking across the whole picture while individual professionals necessarily concentrate on their own areas of expertise. For the claimant, that can mean the difference between receiving a series of individual interventions and having a rehabilitation pathway that makes sense as a whole. When home itself becomes part of rehabilitation Few things demonstrate the human consequences of serious injury more clearly than accommodation. A home that worked perfectly well before an accident can suddenly become disabling. Doorways, bathrooms, stairs, parking and even the distance between rooms can acquire an importance that would previously have been unimaginable. In PAL v Davison, involving a child who had sustained catastrophic injuries, the court permitted substantial interim funding to enable suitable accommodation to be purchased and adapted. In litigation, accommodation may ultimately appear as a substantial head of loss. For the family living through it, the question is considerably simpler: Can we actually live here? It is precisely at this intersection between clinical need and everyday life that case management operates. What can reasonably be done now? There is an important distinction between saying that rehabilitation matters and assuming that every possible intervention should begin immediately. Funding may be uncertain. Prognosis may still be developing. The claimant’s tolerance for rehabilitation may change. Statutory services may already be involved. Some recommendations may depend upon assessments that have not yet taken place. Good case management therefore requires judgement as much as coordination. The useful question is often not: Can we create the complete rehabilitation package now? It is: What can reasonably and proportionately be done now to prevent avoidable problems developing while the wider claim progresses? That may mean identifying immediate risks, coordinating existing provision, establishing priorities, exploring appropriate funding routes or ensuring that different professionals are not working independently of one another. The Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims reflects the same principle by requiring rehabilitation needs to be considered at an early stage and kept under review. The claimant is not a rehabilitation project There is another risk during complex rehabilitation. A person can rapidly acquire a remarkable number of professionals: Solicitors. Insurers. Case managers. Deputies. Therapists. Consultants. Support workers. Equipment providers. Experts. All may have legitimate roles. But viewed from the other side of the table, the experience can be overwhelming. The claimant remains a person whose life has changed, not simply the recipient of a rehabilitation plan. Effective case management therefore also involves listening. What does the individual want to regain? What matters to their family? Which activities represent independence to them? What are they finding difficult that might not appear prominently in a clinical report? For one person, progress might mean walking further. For another, it might mean being able to make breakfast without assistance, attend their child’s football match, return to education or spend an evening without a family member organising everything around them. Those objectives are easy to underestimate because they can look ordinary. That is precisely why they matter. Legal time and human time Serious injury litigation has to be rigorous. Liability cannot simply be assumed, and substantial interim payments have to be approached properly. Cobham Hire Services v Eeles remains an important authority governing how courts approach significant interim payments in high-value personal injury claims, but rehabilitation operates according to a different clock. Months spent establishing the legal position are also months in someone’s recovery, family life and adjustment to injury. The purpose of early case management is not to pre-empt the outcome of the litigation. It is to recognise that life continues while the litigation does.The most effective rehabilitation pathways often begin with a deceptively simple question: While everything else is being resolved, what does this person need now? How Harrison Associates supports solicitors Harrison Associates provides Expert Witness and Case Management services for solicitors handling serious injury, catastrophic injury, complex personal injury and clinical negligence claims. Our Expert Witnesses provide independent opinion on function, rehabilitation, care, therapy, prognosis and future needs. Our Case Managers coordinate rehabilitation, support injured people and families, liaise with professionals and help ensure practical needs are identified and addressed. Where a claim requires clear evidence, structured rehabilitation input or a better understanding of future provision, Harrison Associates can help solicitors identify the right expertise at the right stage. To discuss expert witness evidence or case management support for a serious injury claim, contact us today. Contact
