This is a common question and one that has a pretty straight forward answer. However, there isn’t a fixed time period and the reason for this will hopefully become apparent below…
Of course, the first thing that happens after your medical appointment is that a medical report is compiled and sent across to the solicitor. Your solicitor should chase this if it is taking longer than usual, but there can be delays at this point simply because the third party is not as speedy as we would hope them to be.
So the first bit of advice would be to take this into account and not be chasing a medical report the day after an appointment. In the same way, once your solicitor discloses the medical report to the other side and invites offers, we will chase for a response but one cannot control another’s actions.
Your medical report should contain within it a prognosis period, estimating your rehabilitation and final recovery time. For example: the report may state that you will be fully recovered from your injury in 6 months.
Compensation is based upon how serious your injuries are and consequently how long they will stop you from leading your everyday life.
Therefore the longer your rehabilitation time the higher the amount of compensation you should be awarded. Therefore, if your prognosis period is quite long, then the general rule is that it will take longer to settle your claim as you would not want to run the risk of under settling a case (settling before you have fully healed) and then finding out you are still suffering past the prognosis period and need further medical investigation. The medical experts are only human – they don’t have psychic powers and can only give their best opinion!
Throughout this prognosis time you should be contacted for updates on your injury. This is important as if you are still struggling at the end of your prognosis period; this will delay a settlement as the amount of compensation will need to be adjusted to take into account the extended length of time you are suffering. It will also be necessary to get another medical report and therefore you may be sent for another check-up to estimate another prognosis period- and the whole system starts again.
So how do we try and make this whole system quicker?
Of course, as I have mentioned above, we cannot physically make a third party do their end of the bargain quicker but we will chase for responses and also with our 14 day contact policy we will give you a call to update you so you know exactly what is going on.
Also, at the very beginning of your claim, we can arrange for private medcare to help speed up the rehabilitation period to get you back on your feet as soon as possible; Treatment such as physiotherapy. The cost will be recovered from the other side at the end of the claim if we win, or covered by insurance if the claim doesn’t succeed.
Waiting for an offer can be a frustrating thing, but with our unique client focused way of handling claims, we speed it up as much as we possibly can… By chasing for responses, keeping you in the loop and helping you on the road to recovery. So if you want to claim but don’t want to be waiting around, contact us 0800 634 7575 today.
