These are claims for damages (compensation) for injuries resulting, for example, from road traffic accidents and accidents at work, and for industrial diseases. In order to make a successful claim, you will need to show that the injury or disease for which you are claiming was caused by someone’s negligence or other breach of the law - either the other driver, or your employer, etc.
Making a Personal Injury claim needs specialised knowledge and experience. You need a solicitor to deal with the many technicalities and areas of expertise involved. We are well qualified to help you with this. If you have had an accident, or if you are suffering from an industrial disease, and you want to find out if you may be able to make a claim for compensation against someone else, contact Julia Ryman at our Headington office for a free initial interview.
Some important points about Personal Injury claims:
Legal aid is no longer available to finance these claims, but we may be able undertake these claims on a conditional fee basis.
There are other insurance-based schemes which may help you to finance your claims and which we can discuss with you, so as to find the right type of finance for your case.
In most personal injury cases you must either reach a final agreed settlement within three years of the date of the incident causing your injury, or else issue Court proceedings within that time, failing which your claim will lapse. This is known as the “limitation period”. However, special rules (about how the limitation period is worked out) apply to claims for industrial disease where there is no easily identifiable “incident” causing the problem. These rules need careful consideration and expert advice. In general, the earlier a claim is notified the better, so that it can be followed up while everyone still has a good recollection of the facts.
Claims for damages for personal injury are made up of two components - general damages and special damages. General damages are the compensation for the injury itself - for pain, suffering and loss of amenity. Special damages are the compensation for the resulting financial loss and expense - like loss of pay, nursing and care costs, extra travelling and medical expenses, damaged clothing - and all the other costs and expenses caused by the accident or disease. In serious cases, where a claimant’s employability has been affected, claims for past and future loss of earnings frequently form the largest part of the claim.
In almost every case the person from whom you are claiming will be insured and, in reality, the claim will be against their insurance company.
Claims are generally settled by the payment of a lump sum at the end of the case. A claim cannot be settled until the claimant has finished recovering from the problems caused by the accident or disease, or the medical advisers can say that the claimant has recovered so far as possible, although in suitable cases interim payments of part of the likely final damages can be applied for. So the more serious the injury or disease, the longer a settlement is likely to take to conclude, because of the longer time needed for recovery.
These are just a few of the points which you need to bear in mind in thinking about making a claim for damages for Personal Injury. To go into more detail, contact us to arrange a free intial interview.