Where the victim of an accident and has been injured and is under the age of 18, i.e. a minor, or is considered a ‘protected party’ under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, they will require a ‘litigation friend’ to bring a claim for compensation. A litigation friend can be defined as a responsible adult who will act on the minor’s or ‘protected party’s’ behalf to bring their claim for compensation. In the majority of cases a litigation friend will be a child’s parent or guardian, but at the same time it could be a close family friend, a social worker, or another trusted adult.
I think that most of you reading this would agree that a child of four or five years of age would struggle to bring their genuine claim for compensation on their own! Imagine the scenario where your five year old son is dealing with lawyers on a regular basis to progress a claim for compensation! At the end of the day, just like an adult being injured, a child or ‘protected party’ may suffer the same injury or worse, and have just as good or a more valuable claim for compensation, and should not miss out on the compensation they deserve because of their ‘legal capacity’.
Having a litigation friend does not change the way in which the claim is run, and does not make it any harder. As long as the litigation friend is able to provide all the circumstances to an accident, and be on hand to provide the persons’ injury lawyers with the information they require, the claim for compensation will run just as smoothly and efficiently. The only real difference is that the litigation friend will be required to fill out a form called a ‘Certificate of suitability of litigation friend’ which is very straightforward, and just confirms that you are rightly able to act on the injured party’s behalf.
At The Injury Lawyers, all we ask is that the person acting as a litigation friend for the injured party has their genuine best interests at heart, is reliable, trustworthy, and is happy to help out as if the claim was their own.
If you have know someone who has been injured but do not believe that they have the ‘legal capacity’ to act on their own for their potential claim for compensation, why not give The Injury Lawyers a call today to find out exactly how to progress your claim for compensation?
