Making a claim for compensation for injuries arising out of a relatively straight forward road traffic accident is both easy and fast. Whereas a couple of years ago you could be waiting months, probably years for your compensation, it is now likely that you will receive your compensation in a few weeks or a couple of months. This is because since April 2010 there has been a new system in place which has streamlined the claims process making it both more efficient and more effective.
Under the new system your legal representatives submit a Claim Notification Form to the negligent party’s insurers via a Ministry of Justice online internet portal. The Claim Notification Form (‘CNF’) details your accident, your injuries, and the Defendant’s contact details amongst other relevant particulars relating to the accident. This is submitted online and the Defendant’s insurer has 1 business day in which to acknowledge receipt of your CNF. Once acknowledgment has been received, the Defendant’s insurer has a further 15 business days to admit or deny liability for your accident. It must be stressed at this point that is quite common for admissions of liability to be received within just a few days. Most insurers, where they know that the Defendant clearly was at fault, will just hold up their hands and admit liability as quickly as possible. This means that your claim can be progessed much faster; but in any event, within 15 days you should know one way or the other whether you will be paid out or not.
Where liability is admitted you will be asked to attend a medical appointment so that a legal medical report can be compiled. This will demonstrate that your injuries relate to the accident and will provide a prognosis as to when your GP thinks you should recover from you injuries. Importantly, the medical appointment will be arranged at a time and place convenient for you. Once your lawyer has received your medical report they will assess it, ask you to approve it, and then disclose it to the other side where settlement can then be negotiated on the best terms.
All in all your injury claim should hopefully not take that long at all. Considering that under the previous system it could take 4 months to receive an admission of liability, the fact that your whole claim could be settled in far less time now is great. Get in touch with us at The Injury Lawyers today for some free legal advice, and if you want, we can get the balling rolling on your claim straightaway.
