Personal Injury FAQ

What is the personal injury claims process?

The first part of starting a personal injury claim is making sure you have the correct information.

You will want to ensure that your accident is reported to whoever you think is responsible. For example, if the accident happened at work, you would want to make sure that it is recorded in the accident book. Conversely, if the accident happened in a public place such as a shop, you would want to ensure that the accident is recorded there.

This makes sure that there is an official record of the accident happening, including date, time, location and who might be responsible.

Whilst it is useful that your accident was reported, it is not necessary. Other evidence could be used such as witnesses or testimonies from medical professionals.

Therefore, it is also important to gather evidence as soon as possible. This could include names and contact details of witnesses, photos of where the accident happened, and images of any injuries sustained.

Once you are confident you have the correct information, contact our personal injury team at Rothera Bray. A member of our team will initially discuss your potential claim with you. They will examine the details you have and who you think is at fault for causing the injury.

They will also run through potential funding options for you regarding your legal fees, including no win no fee. Only when you are happy enough to instruct us, will be beginning investigating your claim for you.

How would I make a personal injury claim?

Report your accident and gather information

As soon as you have had an accident, report it to whoever you think was responsible. For example, if the accident took place on public premises, such as a hair salon, or restaurant, report it to the occupier, or owner.

Alternatively, if you were involved in a road traffic accident, you will want to collect the details of the other driver and their insurance company details.

This way, there will be an official record of your accident. It is important that this includes the date and time it took place as well as the name of who might be responsible.

Also, try and gather what information and evidence you can from the scene of the accident. This includes photographs of where the accident took place and your injuries incurred as a result of the accident. If possible, try to get the contact details of any witnesses who saw the accident.

Contact our Personal Injury team

At Rothera Bray, a dedicated member of our team will take the time to discuss your accident with you.

During this, we will talk about:

• the injuries you have sustained and the extent of those injuries
• where and when the accident took place
• who you believe is at fault
• details of any witnesses
• any treatment, or support you have received since the accident

In this initial meeting, we will also explain your fee agreement options. This will include the option to fight your claim on a no win, no fee basis.

Should you decide to instruct us, you will be assigned a dedicated member of the personal injury team who specialises in the type of accident that you have sustained. You will be given their direct contact details so that you can stay updated on the progress of your claim.

It is important to note that time limits do apply to personal injury claims.

There are exceptions to this rule. Firstly, for children under the age of 18 you can make a claim up to their 18th birthday or they can make a claim up until they turn 21. Secondly, if the injury resulted in a mental disability then there is no time limit for you to make a claim on behalf of the person who lacks mental capacity.

Personal injury cases can be complex due to the amount of investigation work required. It is recommended that you seek legal advice as soon as the injury happened.

Assessing the evidence

From all the information and evidence you have gathered in relation to your injury, our personal injury solicitors will build a case. This may involve us carrying out our own investigation.

This includes liaising with the party you believe is responsible for your accident. If this is not known, we will carry out our own inquiries to try to establish who is at fault in order to find out if they accept responsibility for causing the accident.

Calculating compensation

An independent medical professional will be instructed to examine you and prepare a medical report addressing the nature and extent of your injuries.

This will include the impact the injury has had on your life. Not just now, but also in the future. The report will also set out any treatment recommendations and the likely costs involved on a private fee-paying basis.

In addition to this, your compensation claim calculation may also look at any loss of earnings or expenses that your injury has caused.

This report and calculation will then be used to value how much your claim may be worth.

Interim payments

Personal injury compensation claims can take some time to be settled. Unfortunately, in some circumstances such as where injuries suffered are serious, you may require additional care and medical treatment before a settlement is agreed.

In these situations, we may be able to arrange interim payments. You will receive these in advance of your final settlement. Because of this, you can cover the cost of any additional medical expenses and daily costs such as household bills before your compensation claim is complete.

Extra support or rehabilitation

If you have suffered an injury that is particularly serious, we can ask the party at fault to arrange and or pay for an Initial Needs Assessment (INA).

This will address any treatment and equipment needs at an early stage, which will hopefully help expedite and maximise your recovery.

Final settlement

In most cases, the amount of compensation is settled out of court. Any delays that normally occur happen as a result of the other side wanting to negotiate the final amount to be awarded.

Unfortunately, in very rare situations, the other side does not accept responsibility, or negotiations fail and an agreement cannot be reached with them in terms of the amount of compensation you are entitled to.

In these situations, your case could go to the courts where it will be heard in front of a judge.

Should your case go to Court, we will work with a Barrister to represent your interests. Every step of the way we will be there to provide you with advice and guidance.

The outcome of your case

For most cases, clients will be able to make their claim on a no win, no fee basis. This means that if we win your case, we will charge you a success fee from your compensation.

The success fee calculation is on the basis of a 100% uplift on our basic legal costs. We will also cap this at 25% of the value of your claim for pain and suffering and past losses.

We cannot say what the success fee will be from the outset of your case, as this will depend on how much work is involved and also how much your case is worth.

However, rest assured that the success fee cannot be any more than 25% of your compensation.

If you lose your claim, then there will be no charge to you for the work we have done on your case. All we ask is that you co-operate with us and do not mislead us.

It is also important to understand, that at the start of your case, or at some later point, we may advise you to instruct us to take out an insurance policy.

This After The Event Insurance (ATEI) policy protects you from paying the other side’s legal costs, as well as your own disbursements, such as court fees, or medical experts’ fees etc, if you lose your case.

If you win your case, this ATEI premium is deductable from your compensation. You will not need to pay the premium should you lose your case.

What should I do after an accident, when looking to make a personal injury claim?

When you have just experienced a personal injury, it is likely that your emotions are running high and the last thing you are thinking about is recording information and evidence from the accident.

However, if the accident was not your fault and you think you could be entitled to compensation, it is important to try and stay level-headed and consider what details it would be useful to get in the aftermath that will substantiate your claim.

Seek medical attention

Even if you believe your injuries are only minor, they could be more serious than they first appear, so it is always worth seeking medical attention. Your GP, or hospital will make a written record of your injuries, along with treatments and medications they have suggested to aid your recovery, which will all form contemporaneous evidence, proving the extent of your injuries and any long-lasting impacts they could have.

Take photographs

Taking photographs of the injuries you have sustained as a result of the accident, as well as the location of where the accident took place, can be useful evidence to support your claim. Try and take photographs from different angles, or take a video as soon as you can after the accident, as this will accurately represent the conditions that were present when the accident took place.

Make sure there is an official record of the accident – If your accident took place in a building, such as a restaurant, or shop, then asking the owner, or a member of staff to record the incident in the accident book, straight after it happens can help corroborate your claim, especially if it includes details of who was on duty at the time and who might be responsible for your accident. If you were involved in a road traffic accident, then think about whether you need to call the Police. Depending on the severity of the accident, the Police may attend the scene and take witness statements, prepare drawings, collate forensic data and prepare a report, which can be useful evidence to determine liability.

Get details of witnesses

If anyone saw the accident and can vouch for you that it was not your fault, then again this is highly useful evidence to substantiate your claim. Try to get their name and contact details and if possible an account of the accident straight after it occurs.

Retain receipts

Keep receipts for any extra expenses you have incurred such a prescriptions, medical treatment, taxi fares and any equipment, or aids you have bought to help you manage your injury better. Retaining receipts will help you prove the financial losses you have sustained as a result of the accident.

What can I make a personal injury claim for?

Many people tend to assume that when someone makes a claim for personal injury, they are purely making a claim for money for the injuries sustained.

However in many cases, a personal injury has a more profound impact on the individual’s life. For example, they might be unable to work, or when serious injuries have been sustained, they might have long term care and equipment needs. Or adaptations may have to be made to their house or need to move to a different house.

There are a number of different heads of damage that an injured person can claim.

General Damages

This head of loss, also known as pain and suffering, is awarded for physical and psychological injuries sustained in an accident.  As well as the actual injury, we take into consideration any loss of amenity when valuing this head of loss, for example, if a person has been unable to take part in their hobbies, or leisure pastimes, as a result of the accident.

The amount of compensation you receive for general damages will vary depending on the severity of your injuries.  We value a claim by instructing an independent medical expert. The expert will review your medical records and examine you to prepare a report.  We will then use the report to help us value your claim. We do this by researching case law and considering a publication used by the Courts, entitled the Judicial College Guidelines.

Special Damages

This is compensation for any financial losses, or out of pocket expenses you have incurred as a result of your accident. This can include:

Loss of earnings – This includes income lost since the accident, as a result of you being unable to work, or working reduced hours. It can also include future loss of earnings, if you can no longer work, or you have a reduced working capacity.

Pension loss – If you have had to give up work, or have been absent from work and either yourself, or your employer has stopped making contributions to your pension, then this could have an effect on your pension entitlement.

Treatment costs – You might have needed to buy aids, or equipment to help you better cope with your injuries, or paid for private treatment with a physiotherapist, chiropractor, or osteopath to help your recovery.

Prescriptions and over the counter medication – If you have purchased over the counter medication, or paid for prescriptions, you may be able to claim back the cost, especially if you need to continue taking them in the future.

Care and assistance – You may require assistance from professional carers, or even friends, or family members in the short, or longer term.  You may be able to claim the cost of professional carers, or make a claim for gratuitous care if help was provided by family and friends.

Travelling costs – If your injuries mean that you can no longer drive, or you need to attend frequent medical appointments, you may have extra costs for taxis and public transport.

Loss of use of a vehicle – If you were involved in a road traffic accident that damaged your car, leaving you unable to drive it, then you may be able to claim for the period of time that you are without a vehicle.

Personal effects – If some of your clothing, or personal effects were damaged in the accident, then you may be able to recover costs for these items.

Maintenance and housekeeping costs – You may be able to recover any costs you have incurred employing the professional services of someone to carry out maintenance, or housekeeping,  gardening, cleaning, DIY and car maintenance, or you could make a gratuitous care claim, if family and friends provided help.

Housing costs – If your injuries are particularly severe, you may need to make adaptations to your current home. These could include the installation of handrails, ramps and stair lifts. In the most serious of cases, if reasonable adaptations cannot be made to your home to meet your needs, then you might need alternative accommodation.

The above list is not exhaustive but gives an indication of the various heads of loss that you may be able to claim. If you instruct a member of Rothera Bray’s personal injury team, they will assess which heads of loss you may be able to recover. Please remember that it is up to you as the Claimant to prove your losses, so please retain evidence, such as receipts and invoices.

How much can I claim when involved in personal injury claim?

When someone makes a personal injury claim, one of the first questions we at Rothera Bray are asked, is how much compensation they can expect to receive. This is a perfectly understandable question to ask, especially where the injury is serious, or the injury, even if not that serious, has had a significant impact on that person’s life, for example, resulting in treatment costs being incurred, or loss of income.

However, until we have expert medical evidence, it is impossible to accurately advise how much your claim is likely to be worth. The way we value cases, is by firstly obtaining your medical records. Once received, we instruct an independent medical expert to review your medical records and examine you. The expert then prepares a medical report detailing the nature and extent of your injuries. The type of expert we send you to see will depend upon your injuries. If you have sustained a fracture, we will send you to see a Consultant Orthopaedic expert. If you have sustained a minor soft tissue injury, you might see a GP, or an A&E Consultant. If you have sustained a psychological injury, you are likely to see a Psychologist, or Psychiatrist.

Whichever expert you see, they will prepare a medical report setting out their opinion and prognosis. We then use this report to value your claim. We do this by researching case law and looking at what the courts have awarded to people who have suffered similar types of injuries. We also use a publication used by the courts entitled the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG sets out likely  monetary brackets where injuries fall and what the courts are likely to award.

The following will give you an idea of the broad brackets within the JCG.

The above figures do not take into consideration any out of pocket, or financial losses, such as treatment costs, travel costs, care costs, accommodation costs, or loss of income etc.

As mentioned above, these figures only give a rough estimate as to the amount of compensation you might be able to receive.

Alternatively you can contact a member of our personal injury team to discuss the nature of your injury, including the impact it has had on your life and who you believe is responsible for the accident. From this information, they will be able to establish how viable your claim is and provide a broad indication of the amount of compensation you could receive.

It is also important to be aware that most personal injury claims need to be made within three years of the date of the accident; although this is shorter for some types of accidents.

Can I make a ‘no win no fee’ PI claim?

Yes, that’s possible, but it depends on a number of factors. Please see this page: Can I make a no win no fee claim?

Can I make a personal injury claim on behalf of another Person?

Typically, where someone makes a claim for personal injury, they will be the individual involved in an accident where it was not their fault. However, there are certain circumstances in which you might want to make a personal injury claim on behalf of someone else.

These include:

• Making a claim on behalf of your child
• Making a claim on behalf of a family member, who is incapacitated, or lacks capacity
• Making a claim on behalf of a family member, who has been killed as a result of negligence

To make a claim on behalf of someone else there are certain procedures to follow.

Making a Personal Injury claim on behalf of your child

If a child is involved in an accident and they are under 18 then a claim for compensation can be made on their behalf by a parent, guardian, or other family member. The person representing the child is known as a litigation friend and they will be responsible for protecting the child’s rights and ensuring they get the compensation they are entitled to. Part of their duties may include liaising with solicitors and making decisions on behalf of the child.

There is no time limit for making a claim if the child has not yet turned 18, but after their 18^th birthday, there is a three year timeframe for making a claim. Once a child has reached 18, they also have the option of making the claim themselves, which must be done before they turn 21.

Making a Personal Injury claim on behalf of someone who does not have mental capacity

An adult who does not have mental capacity might also be referred to as a ‘protected party’. A parent, sibling, or close relative may be able to make a claim on their behalf and will also act as a litigation friend. If the protected party has no family members that can act for them, a solicitor might be appointed by the court to act as a litigation friend for them.

The litigation friend will be responsible for collating evidence, including keeping records of expenses and receipts, ensuring the ‘protected party’ receives the medical care required, providing instructions to the solicitor and providing the solicitor with information and evidence about the injury.

The timeframe in which to make a claim for a ‘protected party’ is three years from the date in which the individual no longer lacks capacity, otherwise, if the ‘protected party’ never regains mental capacity, there is no time limit in place in which to make the claim.