People often have the misconception that claiming for compensation requires you to be seriously injured, or at least in a position where something is broken and a hospital was needed for treatment. This is not the case – and I’m not talking about injuries that are far worse, like amputations or brain damage; I’m talking about sprains, bruising, and other injuries under the scope of soft tissue damage or lacerations.
The answer is simple – no you don’t have to have broken something, and you can claim for what we would class as minor injuries. There are two potential roads to go down – firstly, if your injury lasts more than four to six weeks, it should be worth at least £1,000. As long as it is worth at least this much, we can make a compensation claim as we are entitled to recover our legal fees from the other side. If it’s worth less than that, you can still claim but the case would likely fall within the realms of the Small Claims Track. For this, a solicitor cannot normally recover fees so you might have to go it alone in a small claims court.
Sticking with injuries that we can deal with, many strains, sprains, stretches and lacerations will often last the minimum amount of time to make it reasonable to put a formal claim in. An ankle sprain can easily last 8 weeks or more, depending on how badly it is sprained. Whiplash injuries tend to last for months on end. Lacerations are a little different – you may only feel the pain for less than the four week mark, but if it leaves a scar, that’s classed as suffering. If that scar lasts more than the four to six week mark, you should be fine to make a claim.
Ultimately a claim is based on the severity and longevity of any suffering. We support this using medical evidence which involves seeing an expert for a quick appointment and allowing them to send a report to us to value the claim. As long as the prognosis in that report supports that your injuries last more than the four to six week mark, we shouldn’t have any problems recovering the minimum £1,000 that is needed for us to recover our legal fees from the other side.
Call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 for specialist advice today.