Each year, over three million people are injured in accidents. Accidents can happen anywhere, such as at work, in a car, or a public place. After experiencing an accident that wasn’t their fault, many people will want to claim for compensation. 

Personal injury law acts to ensure that every person can make a claim for compensation easily and quickly. 

To learn more or to start your claim, get in touch with our expert team on 0333 358 2345 or contact us online. 

Steps to Take

To successfully win a compensation claim it is necessary to prove that the other party involved is to blame. Therefore, there are certain bits of information that you can collect to increase the chances of your claim being successful: 

• The date of the accident; where and how it happened.
• Contact details of any witnesses to the accident.
• Details of the injuries that have been sustained – it’s important to provide an official medical diagnosis with details of any treatment.

There are also certain steps that you can take after an accident to improve your chances of your claim being successful. The first step to take is for your solicitor to send a letter to the individual you’re making the claim against, setting out the details of your injury and the circumstances whereby it occurred. 

The individual will then be required to investigate and provide a response to the letter within a fixed period. In most instances, this fixed period is around three-months. In their reply, the person will have to state whether or not they accept this claim. If they do then a settlement can usually be made outside of court but if they do not, then it may be necessary to make a claim inside of court.

At this early stage, it is important for your solicitor to tell you what they believe the value of your claim is. You’ll also need to think about how much compensation you’d be prepared to accept as your solicitor will be able to make an offer to the responsible individual for that amount. The respondent can come back with a counteroffer and if this is deemed to be reasonable it will usually be possible to settle the issue without having to go to court. 

However, if the accident claim can’t be settled between the parties and their solicitors; legal action will likely be sought. In this instance, it will be in the court’s hands to decide whether or not you will be awarded compensation. They will also determine how much compensation you are to be awarded. Therefore, you should retain any proof of a loss of earnings or a loss of finances, such as receipts for treatment or payment slips. Details of any insurance policies that you may have, as these could be used to help cover the cost of your compensation claim, should also be provided. Any documents that could potentially help your claim should also be retained, such as photographs of the accident scene, contact details of witnesses, or a written account of what happened from the period surrounding the accident. 

Amount of Compensation

Compensation is decided by assessing the amount of pain and suffering caused by an injury as well as assessing the impact that the injury has had upon your ability to function as you normally would. For example, if you can no longer complete tasks as you would previously, then it may be possible to account for this through compensation. If you have suffered any financial losses due to your injuries, it may be possible to recover these through compensation. Therefore, as stated above you should keep any documents that highlight the financial losses you have suffered relating to your injuries.

To view general compensation estimates for different injury types, visit our compensation calculator.

Making Personal Injury Claims

To learn more or to start your claim, get in touch with our expert team on 0333 358 2345 or contact us online.