Once again, everyone has been physically injured in some way or another, but is the injury serious enough to merit a lawsuit. One sure way to know is this: If the Applicant already has a lawyer that is representing them in a civil action, then the lawyer has determined that the injury meets the serious criteria. And, by the way, “serious” doesn’t mean life threatening. It just means the injury has caused physical pain of some extent to the person and that range of pain is completely subjective.
On the other hand, if the Applicant doesn’t have a lawyer, then you, the independent Case Broker, have to make the call. Here is a rule of thumb (and, by the way, a lost thumb is considered a serious injury for these purposes):
If the Applicant had to receive medical treatment, consider the injury a serious one, or, if the Applicant has not yet received medical treatment and you believe, after your conversation with them, that they may need to seek some medical help, you can also consider that the injury is a serious one...and then urge them to go and get the medical help they need.
As you can see, the standard isn’t very high, but you don’t want to waste your time (or theirs) helping them apply for some upfront money when there is virtually no chance for their injury to be the basis of a lawsuit.
So, when in doubt, call the injury serious. Just continue the application process and let someone higher up the chain (the advance company) make the final call. If you are wrong, then the only thing that you lose is a little bit of time.