Many would agree that a person under the age of 18 is not suitable to bring a claim for compensation on their own accord. Sure, you may get a few mature 15, 16, 17 or 18 year olds who could probably do so; but a child of the age of 3 or 4 could not, nor a child of 10. As such, a child, or a ‘minor’, i.e. a person under the age of 18, cannot bring a claim for compensation of their own accord.
However, this is not to stop them claiming for compensation. They can either wait until they are 18 and make a claim any time up until they are 21 years old, or a ‘litigation friend’ can do so on their behalf. At The Injury Lawyers we would suggest that, where a child is particularly young or it would be a couple of years until they are 18, that they have a litigation friend to act on their behalf in making any claim for compensation. This is because we consider that the longer you take to make the claim, the less fresh the events are in your mind; there is a greater likelihood that evidence will be lost or witnesses will be either untraceable or less reliable.
What is a litigation friend?
Essentially a litigation friend is a responsible adult who will act on the child’s behalf. In most cases this will be the parent or guardian of the child, but could equally be a social worker or some trusted family friend. Upon certifying that they are able to act as a litigation friend, it is just purely a matter of proceeding with the case in exactly the same way as you would if the accident was your own.
Does a litigation friend affect the claim?
Absolutely not. As long as the litigation friend is co-operative and helpful and is able to provide as much information as possible then there is no reason why the claim would suffer. The difference is that all correspondence would be addressed to the litigation friend and they would help an injury lawyer with the day-to-day running of the case. Having a litigation friend does not mean that the child will receive less compensation or anything like that. It does not mean that the claim will take any longer either. In fact, if the litigation friend is particularly helpful, the claim may go faster than someone else who is possibly less available to help but is dealing with their case on their own.
If your child has had an accident and you feel that they should be compensated for the injuries they have suffered as a result, get in touch with us at The Injury Lawyers today where we will are on hand to advise.
