It’s a lovely day today – let’s hope the weather stays nice over the four day weekend – give us a taste of what’s to come over this summer (hopefully!). But, anyone’s day and summer can easily be ruined when you end up injured in an accident through no fault of your own! Nowadays, it’s easy to end up injuring yourself – but it’s also an easy process to make a claim.
Help! I’ve been injured in an accident that wasn’t my fault!
Been hit in the rear by another car? Fallen down in a supermarket on a wet floor where no signs or preventative measures were in place to warn you of the hazard? Or been injured at work because your employer failed to properly train you for a particular task? If the accident was not your fault, but the fault of someone else (a company, or a person), you have the first ingredient in place to make a successful claim for compensation.
Do I Have a Claim?
If you give us a call, we will let you know straight away! But ultimately, some claims are easier to win than others. If the accident you were in was caused by the negligence of another person / company, it’s likely that you have a claim.
What Can I Claim For?
You can claim for several things. The first is a claim for the injury itself. You can claim for the pain, suffering, loss, and inconvenience the injury has caused you.
The second is financial losses (often referred to as Special Damages). The idea of claiming is not only to compensate you financially for being injured in an accident, but also to make sure you do not suffer financially. Basically, if you lose out on any money whatsoever, you can make a claim to recover it as part of the compensation you are entitled to.
Loss of Earnings
If you are off work for 2 weeks, and receive no pay or a statutory sick pay, you can make a claim for lost earnings to either recover the amount you have lost, or recover the difference between what you were paid through sick pay and what you normally get. This is the most common claim for losses, and it’s generally straightforward to prove. Wage slips pre-dating your accident will show how much you normally earn so we can get an idea of what you have lost out on.
Treatment Costs
Physiotherapy, chiropractic, or osteopathic treatments are always options available to help you get back on the road to recovery. Ideally, with a proper personal injury lawyer this should be provided to you from the outset of the case on a private basis at no cost to you (even if the claim loses). But if you end up paying for any treatment, you can add this to your claim to recover the amount you have paid out for.
You can even claim for medication expenses – whether its prescription or over the counter, keep receipts of what you pay out for and we will add them to your claim.
Travel Expenses
If you have to travel to and from medical appointments or physio appointments, we can claim back a mileage allowance if you use your own transport, or we can recover the fees of taxi and bus fares. Again, retain receipts (you can ask taxi drivers for them) and bus fares so we can evidence the claim.
Care and Assistance
This can often make up a large proportion of a claim, and it’s something lazy lawyers will easily miss out on. If anyone has had to help you whilst you have been suffering, perhaps with domestic chores, personal hygiene, or shopping, we can make a claim for the carer for the time they have spent on helping you out.
How Much Can I Claim For?
Your injury claim is largely based on the length and severity of your suffering, together with the degree of inconvenience it has caused you. A basic example: if you suffer for 8 months, your claim is likely worth more than if you are suffering for 4 months. The losses claim is then added on to your injury claim to make up the amount.
In order to maximise your claim for compensation, you need a medical report from a fully qualified medico-legal expert, and a specialist personal injury lawyer to value your claim. This combination is the only way to guarantee a maximum payout. Insurance companies (I’m sorry to say) are only interested in how much money they can save.
To make sure you are compensated fairly, get the experts on your case: an in dependant firm of specialist personal injury lawyers on a Genuine No Win No Fee basis – meaning you pay nothing whether the claim wins or loses. Not a single penny!
