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So, you have been involved in a minor road traffic accident, and as result your vehicle has been damaged, and you have been injured.  Well, in all likelihood, if the road traffic accident was not your fault, or even if it was only partly your fault, you are entitled to make a claim for compensation.  After all, you have suffered an injury at the hands of a negligent third party driver.

So – how do you go about this? The first thing you should do is get all the other drivers details and then attend your GP or hospital so that they can check you over and make sure that you are okay, and provide any medical treatment if needed.  Then, once all this is done, you should get in touch with an independent, quality personal injury lawyer, like those at The Injury Lawyers, with plenty of experience in this area of law and who can provide you with legal representation at no cost to you.  Once you have done this, your professional injury lawyer will be able to guide you through the claims process which I will now outline:

On the 30^th April 2010 the Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents deals with your compensation claim.  Where your injury is likely to be worth less than £10,000, this Protocol outlines the process that your lawyers must carry out to help you get your compensation as fast as possible!  You will firstly be asked to fill out a Claims Notification Form (‘CNF’).  It is a straightforward form but do not worry if you get stuck at any point – The Injury Lawyers are just a phone call away from being able to happily assist you.  We always review your form in any event so you have nothing to worry about.
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I would hazard a guess that many of you reading this blog may think you know what ‘no win, no fee’ means. The title seems fairly self-explanatory – i.e. if you do not win your case then you do not have to pay a penny.

Well, I suggest that you consider the following scenarios:

What do you have to pay if you win?
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A common problem with road traffic accidents is that neither party wish to accept fault for the accident. I know of many clients who after a car accident which may be obviously the other drivers fault but upon speaking to them they not only say it was not their fault but also try and pass the blame onto you. This can often lead to lengthy negotiations in personal injury claims and sometimes fault may be split in terms of a ratio say; 70/30 or 60/40.

Obviously we want to prove that the other is 100% at fault for the accident, and in many cases this can be a straight forward and relatively simple process. The topic of this blog is Rear – End Shunts – the reason being that liability in rear end shunt cases is usually easy to establish. A rear end shunt is a term used to describe a car hitting another car from behind. In these cases, it is highly likely that liability will be admitted by the other side, as it is often fairly apparent that fault lies with the driver who came from behind and hit the car in front.

Because of the straightforward nature of these types of cases, most of our clients who have been involved in rear end shunt accidents have a speedy and successful conclusion to their case.  Accidents that happen after the 30^th April 2010 are in a simpler more streamlined system which means that insurers have to respond with their liability decision within 15 days of the claim notification form being sent. This is opposed to the nearly 4 month period they had under the old system. This means that many of our clients who have been in rear end shunt accidents after the above get their claims concluded in a much quicker time frame.
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At The Injury Lawyers, many of our clients suffer from the painful and frustrating condition known as whiplash.  Whiplash is a condition which is not so plain to see a scar or a broken bone, and so many people may discount it or devalue it in their minds. At The Injury Lawyers, we know the pain our clients suffer through whiplash and the destructive effect the condition can have on their lives; we therefore treat the condition extremely seriously and with the importance it deserves.

Symptoms

The symptoms of whiplash can be felt differently by different people. However, for most, the symptoms do not become apparent until around 6 – 12 hours after the accident – they may then increase in severity for up to one week. A sufferer may feel tenderness, stiffness, and/or numbness in their neck which may radiate to other areas such as in the shoulders or back. Sufferers can have decreased mobility in their neck, or in more extreme circumstances, have no mobility at all.
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I think it’s obvious to understand that if you are injured due to a faulty product, you are entitled to make a claim for compensation; but what about services that have caused your injuries?

Britain’s industry is primarily comprised of services – so there’s a lot that could go wrong. As long as your injuries were not your fault, but caused through the negligence of a company or another person, you can make a claim under the Sale of Goods and Services Act 1982.

I personally have seen an increase in claims related to beauty clinics and beauty treatment recently. We are seeing burns, rashes, and even scarring from laser treatment that has gone wrong, or chemicals that have caused a reaction. Ultimately, the clinic or practice where the treatment was performed has an important duty of care to ensure you are not harmed through the use of their service.
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We have many clients approach us after tripping on a defect on a public highway. After a harsh winter and the coming of Spring, I feel it is a good time to address the issue of claims against the Council for accidents stemming from a defected highway. Potholes can occur for a multitude of reasons – but after a long harsh winter, it is highly likely to be due to frost. The frost and ice seeps into small cracks in the highway which then expands to form larger cracks which can further crumble away to form large pot holes. These pot holes can form a major hazard to pedestrians on the pavement, or to vehicles if on the road. Vehicles which are especially vulnerable to pot holes are motor bikes, mopeds, and bicycles, which can be easily knocked off course due to a defect in the road surface.

What to do

If you have had an accident stemming from a defect on the road and it was not your fault, then you may have a claim for compensation.
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Bus and coach accidents are something which may be overlooked when considering personal injury claims. This is because when we hear about road traffic accident claiming it is often regarding car or motorbike accidents. We hear advertisements on television all the time asking if we have had a road traffic accident; for some reason I guess we would usually associate this with a car accident.

Bus and coach accidents may be less common than car accidents, but we still have many clients approach us after being injured whilst on a bus. If you have been injured on a bus and it was not your fault then you may have a claim for compensation. Whether the road traffic accident was the fault of the bus driver or another car and you, there is a high chance you have a claim. If the fault was with the bus driver you may be able to bring a claim against the bus company. Bus companies are often vicariously liable for the actions of their drivers – meaning the bus company is responsible for the actions of the bus driver involved, and you can be compensated through the company insurance.

On the other hand, if fault lies with another driver, you may be able to bring a claim against them. Either way you may have a valid claim.
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Whiplash is not a nice injury to suffer from. It generally occurs after a road accident, but can also occur after a slip or a fall.

Whiplash is caused by the sudden jolting of your neck beyond its normal range of movement – this effectively stretches the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, and can result in anything from minor neck pain for a few days, to months and months of agony and pain.

The more common symptoms of whiplash:
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Supermarkets of one of those necessary hassles of modern life.  Back when I was young there were not some many of these and people would spend maybe a couple of hours going from their bakery, to their butcher, and to their fishmonger. Now it seems the modern fast paced lives of today demand everything under one roof and with lots of choice and convenience.

Saying this, many people love the convenience the supermarket offers – many however would not anticipate having an accident in one which was not their fault. Many clients come to us at The Injury Lawyers after suffering an accident in a supermarket; these accidents can range from a slip on a spillage to a trip on an item negligently left in an aisle or an item falling on them from a poorly stacked shelf. Whatever the accident, as long as it was not your fault and it has caused you an injury, you may have a claim for compensation.

If you have an accident in a supermarket it is advisable to report it as they may need to place a note of it in their accident book. This entry in the accident book can also serve as evidence that the accident did actually take place.  Although it is advisable to report the accident, this allows the Defendant to be put on notice of the accident, so to speak. Shortly after the accident, many of our clients have then been approached by the supermarkets with a goodwill gesture of money or vouchers. This can end up with a Third Party Capture situation whereby the Defendant may be attempting to settle your claim on a full and final basis before it goes any further and you instruct a solicitor to begin a personal injury claim. If you accept this offer you may be settling any potential claim you have; you would not be able to make any further claim. Without legal advice you do not know what your potential claim is worth, and so by accepting this early (and often small) offer, you may be under valuing your claim.
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Completing a personal injury claim may be seen as two-pronged. On the one hand you have your claim for your injury compensation to which any good injury lawyer would advise you an approximate value. On the other hand you have you losses. Now, you may wonder – ‘what am I talking about’, and think that your claim was just for compensation. Well, succeeding in a personal injury claim is meant to put you in the position you would have been in had you never have suffered the accident. Therefore, if we did not include in that claim any loss of earnings you had suffered, or all the travel costs you had incurred as a result of the accident, you would still be worse off.

Therefore, any financial losses you incur as a result of the accident will be compiled in a document known as a Schedule of Loss. This document will not contain a valuation for your injury compensation because, as I said, it can be seen as two-pronged; so the compensation part is claimed separately.

Below I have listed some of the more common items of loss which you may see on a Schedule of Loss:
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