The recent UK Supreme Court decision allowing severely injured children to claim damages for earnings during the “lost years” of life expectancy is set to influence how catastrophic clinical negligence claims are valued.

The ruling in CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust removed a long-standing legal restriction that had prevented young children from recovering damages for income they would have earned during years of life lost due to negligence.

A birth injury case reaches the Supreme Court

The case concerned a girl known in court as CCC, who suffered severe brain injury due to oxygen deprivation during her birth at a hospital run by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust admitted negligence. Medical evidence indicated that the injury significantly reduced CCC’s life expectancy, which is estimated to be around 29 years.

The legal issue before the court was whether CCC could claim damages for the income she would have earned during the additional years of life she would otherwise have lived.

Ending a decades-old restriction

For more than 40 years, courts followed a 1981 Court of Appeal decision which held that very young children could not recover damages for “lost years” because estimating their future earnings was considered too speculative.

In CCC, the Supreme Court rejected that reasoning. In a majority decision, the court held that children should not be treated differently from adult claimants whose life expectancy has been shortened by negligence.

The judges concluded that courts are capable of estimating future earning capacity using statistical and actuarial evidence, in the same way they already assess other forms of future financial loss in personal injury cases.

What “lost years” damages mean

“Lost years” damages relate to earnings the claimant would have generated during the years of life they will no longer live because their life expectancy has been reduced by negligence.

In practice, courts estimate the claimant’s likely future earnings and then apply deductions to reflect the proportion of income that would have been spent on personal living expenses.

The remaining amount represents the financial benefit that would have been available to the claimant’s dependants or estate during those lost years.

Implications for catastrophic injury claims

The decision has significant implications for the valuation of catastrophic injury claims involving children whose life expectancy has been substantially shortened.

Such cases commonly arise in clinical negligence litigation, particularly in complex birth-injury claims where expert evidence is required to assess both long-term care needs and projected life expectancy.

Where negligence both causes severe disability and reduces life expectancy, damages calculations may now include lost-years earnings — income the claimant would have earned during the years of life they will no longer live.

In practice, courts estimate likely future earnings and apply deductions for personal living expenses, with the remaining amount representing the financial value of those lost years.

Although the precise impact will vary between cases, the inclusion of lost-years damages may increase the overall value of some catastrophic injury claims.

A significant development in damages law

The ruling aligns the treatment of children with the long-established approach applied to adult claimants whose life expectancy has been reduced by negligence.

The Supreme Court has returned the case to the High Court to determine whether additional damages should be awarded and how they should be calculated.

For practitioners involved in catastrophic injury litigation, the decision is likely to influence how future claims involving severely injured children are pleaded, assessed and negotiated.

Sources

UK Supreme Court — CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust press summary
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2023-0111-press-summary.pdf

BBC News — coverage of the Supreme Court ruling
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68338863

The Guardian — report on implications for NHS negligence payouts
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/18/nhs-spend-more-settle-lawsuits-negligence-childbirth-supreme-court