This is something that always seems to worry people when they are considering making a claim – as understandably many people do not like the thought of being put in front of a judge with someone firing questions at them (like you see on the many court dramas on T.V). However, in the majority of civil claims they never get as far as going to court, so there really is no reason that this should deter you from pursuing a claim.
The civil procedure rules – the rules that govern personal injury claims – are specifically designed to stop the need to go to court. They do this through a number of ways with the main one being what is called a Part 36 offer. I will not go into much detail here about these, but they are a good example to show how the rules are designed to deter people from going to court.
In short, if a part 36 offer is rejected and the claim then goes to court, if the court rules that the offer was reasonable and consequently should have been accepted, then the losing side will not be able to recover fees from the time the offer was made and may also be ordered to pay court costs. As you can see, not a great position to be in and therefore this shows the way in which the rules are designed to avoid court as much as possible.
If the claim does go to court (which as I have said before, is not what happens in the majority of cases) it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to attend personally. Your witness statement is used as evidence in chief and therefore the only time you could be asked, is if the other side are wishing to de-credit you as a witness.
So as you can see, it is not the standard routine for a case to be taken to court, and even if it is, you are rarely expected to attend.
This is why you should not let a fear of courts stop you from pursuing your claim. If you have been injured due to someone else’s negligence, you could be suffering from extensive losses or even an injury that can affect you for the rest of your life. We work on our GENUINE no win no fee guarantee and therefore you’ll receive 100% compensation. We are specialist personal injury lawyers and therefore are experienced in handling personal injury claims whether they go to court or not.
