If an Employers Liability or a Public Liability claim is valued at between £1,000 and £25,000 and the incident happened on or after 31st July 2013, then the new protocol will apply to how your claim is run. The new protocol enables your claim to be dealt with efficiently and as quickly as possible by inputting the information of the accident onto an online portal. There is a 3 Stage process to follow to complete your claim.
Stage 1
Stage 1 is where a Claim Notification Form (CNF) is filled in with all the information of the accident, your details, and the defendant’s details if known. The defendant is the person or company your claiming against. This is then submitted onto the portal where the defendant has access to it, and they now have 30 days in an employers liability claim and 40 days in a public liability claim to respond. The defendant can either admit or deny liability – if liability is denied, the claim will exit the portal and be dealt with in a different process. If liability is admitted then the claim will move onto the next stage.
Stage 2
Stage 2 is applicable only if liability has been admitted by the defendant. The claimant now needs to provide medical evidence and a breakdown of losses and expenses incurred and an offer of settlement in the Stage 2 Settlement Pack to the defendant. In total the defendant has 35 days to consider the Stage 2 Settlement Pack, which is 15 days to accept an offer or make a counter offer. If a counter offer has been made the defendant has 20 days to negotiate this to reach a final settlement. If an offer or counter offer is accepted the defendant has 10 days after this to pay the damages agreed. At this stage the claimant can also request an interim if they are suffering financial difficulty due to the accident – for example if they are out of work and not getting paid because of their injuries sustained. If the claim is not resolved then it proceeds onto Stage 3.
Stage 3
Stage 3 of the protocol is only for claims that cannot be negotiated or settled between the claimant and defendant. The claimant must send the Court Proceedings Pack to the defendant. The defendant has 5 days to dispute the document if needed and after another 5 days the claimant must then submit the Court Proceedings Pack to the court for a hearing. A hearing can then decide the value of the claim.
So if you would like information about making a claim, call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75. For these types of accidents we can normally offer a 100% compensation agreement.
