How It Works

To help you further understand the process involved in making a personal injury claim, we have put together a fact-sheet and included some frequently asked questions, as well as an overview of the process.

How It Works

Funding

If, after discussion with you, we believe you have a valid claim. We will discuss with you the various methods of funding available.

Legal Aid is only available, regardless of means, in limited circumstances, for example, in medical negligence cases. Many people still believe that this is the most widely used method.

However, Conditional Fee Agreements, Legal Expenses Insurance, Contingency fee, or indeed instructing us on a private basis are more widely used.

If you decide that you would like us to assess your case; we will explain, in detail, what all these methods are and decide which one best suits your personal circumstances.

Many people have will the benefit of Legal Expenses Insurance, with either their Motor Vehicle Insurer or maybe on their home contents policy or credit card.

We can offer a ‘No Win/No Fee Agreement’ to give you complete peace of mind.

The claims process

click here to also see a ‘guide to claiming’.

If we believe that you have a valid claim, we will then instruct one of our specialist Solicitors and a Claims Manager to deal with your case.

We will gather together information relating to your claim, including who is to blame, and about your losses. You will, no doubt, have incurred various expenses and suffered various losses as a result of the accident and we will claim these back at some point during the course of the claim.

We will present your case to the responsible parties insurer and ask them to admit fault.

We will then organise a medical for you and on receipt of the medical report, we will establish a value for your injury.

We will then calculate the claim amounts relating to all the different aspects of your case, send it to you for your approval, and then forward it onto the insurer.

Compensation is often referred to as damages. There are two main types of damages:

General Damages

This is an award for pain and suffering and loss of amenity, resulting from the accident, added to which there may be:

Special Damages

This is an award of compensation for out of pocket expenses incurred as a result of the accident. Examples of these include:-

  • Loss of earnings.
  • Compensation for damage to career prospects and/or an inability to do certain types of work.
  • Past and future unpaid care and assistance from family and friends and/or the cost of professional nursing care.
  • Travel expenses. For example; travelling to hospital appointments and your GP.
  • Cost of gardening and DIY.
  • Cost of prescriptions and specialist medical equipment.
  • Cost of medical, physiotherapy, chiropractic or osteopathy treatment.

These are just examples of the types of ‘special damages’ you can claim for, but there may be others, depending on your personal circumstances and the nature of the accident.

The responsible party will either accept the valuation of the claim, or they will put forward an alternative offer. We will then give you advice about the offer. If you accept the offer, or if you accept any revised offer, then your case ends, and you receive your compensation without any deductions (provided that you have co-operated with us fully).

We would expect that, with your co-operation, the steps described above can be concluded very quickly.

If no offer is made (for whatever reason), or if an offer is made and you decide to reject it, then we shall discuss with you the issue of court proceedings to force the other side to properly compensate you.

Time limits

There is a time limit on making a claim which varies with each different type of accident. This is usually three years from the date of the incident, or with a minor, three years from their 18th birthday. With regard to an industrial illness, for example, the limit would be 3 years from the date on which you were first aware of an illness and the possiblity of making a claim.

We will guide you through time limits, when you contact us.