The first step is to produce what is known as a ‘Letter of Claim.’ It outlines who you are, your accident, the injuries you have sustained in this accident, and why it should be considered that the Defendant was negligent and should provide you with compensation. This is a simple document which, so long as we have as much detail as possible, can be submitted to the Defendant straight away.
The Defendant then has a period of 21 days in which to acknowledge the Letter of Claim. In most cases they will write back to your legal representative to inform them that they have noted your wish to pursue a claim and that they will now investigate your claim or will pass the claim to their insurers / claims handlers / solicitors (a typical practice) who will investigate on their behalf. Once the Defendant has acknowledged the Letter of Claim they have 3 months to come back with their position on liability; i.e. whether they will admit or deny liability.
This three month period can be a little bit of a slow period where you may not hear much from the other side. At the end of the day, the Defendant is entitled to this 3 month period to investigate your claim, and although your lawyers can check up their progress and try and assist in any way, during this time it really is a case of just waiting for their response. That said, not every Defendant takes the full 3 months to investigate the claim, and progress can be made a lot faster.
Once the Defendant has admitted liability you will be asked to attend a medical appointment so that a legal medical report can be compiled. This will relate your injuries to the accident and provide a prognosis from which your claim can be properly valued. Once the medical report is disclosed, with your permission, to the Defendant it is just a matter of settling your case on the best possible terms and this should not take too long.
If you have had an accident in which you have been injured and you believe that this is because of a third party’s negligence why not give us at The Injury Lawyers a call today where you can run the circumstances by us and we can provide you with some free legal advice.