Your Losses and your Duty to Mitigate

Compensation is meant to put you back in the position you would have been in had you not ever been involved in the accident.

This means that, not only are you entitled to claim back for your injuries, but also for any financial losses you have suffered as a result of those injuries.

In order to give you an idea of what losses you can claim for, I have listed some of the more common types of losses below:

1. Loss of earnings – if you have been absent from work as a result of your accident, and you have been left unpaid or on a reduced rate of pay, such as Statutory Sick Pay, you may have a claim for loss of earnings.  A loss of earnings is normally calculated by working out an average of 13 weeks pay prior to the accident.  If you are self –employed, your solicitor would normally use 3 years of profit and loss accounts to determine your average loss of earnings.
2. Care and Assistance – If your accident has meant that you have required assistance with personal care tasks, such as dressing and/or bathing, or even with those daily household tasks, such as cleaning and/or preparing meals then you may have a claim for care and assistance.
3. Treatment costs– if you have had to fund the costs of private treatment from your own pocket, you can claim these costs back from the other side. The treatment must have come as a result of your accident, and must also be seen as reasonable to have.
4. Other –you may also claim for travel expenses, prescription costs, and miscellaneous expenses, such as postage costs, photocopying costs, and telephone call costs.

Although you are fully entitled to claim for any losses you have incurred as a result of your accident, these losses must be supported by documentary evidence, and be seen as reasonable when considering the accident and your injuries.

In relation to these losses, there is a further duty which is also placed on you which is to mitigate your losses. This means that you should keep your losses to a minimum where possible – so, for example, you should go back to work as soon as you are able – if your work is manual and you feel unable to do that type of work, if possible, you should try to go back on light duties. If you fail to mitigate losses the other side can refuse to pay those which you have incurred due to that failure.

If you require any further information regarding the above then feel free to give us a call.