Accident Claim Advice

If you or someone close to you has suffered a personal injury as the result of an accident that was someone else’s fault, you may be considering the possibility of making an accident claim for compensation.

It is always advisable to seek expert legal advice from a specialist personal injury lawyer on any accident claim. Our lawyers have a wealth of experience in all areas of personal injury and you can obtain advice and assistance by calling 0800 0328511 or by completing an online claim enquiry form. Below you will find some useful information about making an accident claim.

Accident Types
Making an Accident Claim
The Accident Claims Process
Time Limits for Making an Accident Claim
Accident Compensation
How Much Compensation am I Likely to Receive?
Further Information on Personal Injury Claims
Expert Accident Claim Lawyers
Successful Accident Claim Cases
Details of Accident Cases

Accident Types

There are a variety of circumstances under which a person may suffer an accident that results in a personal injury, including:

Road accidents
Accidents at work
Accidents in public places
Building site accidents
Travel accidents
Accidents on holiday
Sports accidents
Accidents caused by defective products
Military accidents

Some accidents are simply just that and no one is to blame, however in many cases accidents are avoidable and the actions of another party, or their failure to act, is the cause.

If this is the case, the injured party should be entitled to make an accident claim for damages.

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Making an Accident Claim

1. The first step to take if you have been involved in an accident is to record as much information as possible. This may involve noting down the details of witnesses, the date and time that the accident occurred and an account of what happened. This is often useful as your memory of events may be affected by the shock and stress of the accident.

2. If the incident was a road accident, note down the vehicle information such as the colour and make of the vehicle, the vehicle registration number and the name and address of the driver and their insurer.   You also need to report the road traffic accident to the police straight away and make a note of the incident report, the identity and number of the police officer making the record and the relevant police station location.

3. If the accident occurred on public or private property, or the hazard might disappear (such as ice, snow, water or oil), you should also take photographs of the location or the hazard where possible.

4. If you were involved in an accident at work, or on the premises of a commercial property, you should ensure that the incident is reported and the details recorded in an accident book.  If you are visiting or working at another premises, you will need to report the accident to not only the owner or occupier of the premises where the accident occurred but also your own employer. You may also need to consider whether the accident should be reported to the Health and Safety Executive or the Local Environmental Health Officers.

5. It is important to seek medical attention at the earliest opportunity if you have suffered a personal injury. Keep records of any treatment you have required related to your accident and any expenses you have incurred, as it may be possible to reclaim these later.  It is always important to ensure that the details of the accident such as the date and circumstances are briefly and accurately recorded by the medical advisers as these records are often important to corroborate the accident.

6. Obtain specialist accident claim advice from a qualified, expert, personal injury lawyer, such as The Legal Line's lawyers. They will advise on how best to pursue your case.

It is necessary to ascertain who is at fault for the accident that caused your personal injury. This may be another driver in a car accident, your employer (for example if the health and safety measures at your workplace were insufficient), the occupier of premises or the local authority if you had an accident on a public pavement.

It must be shown that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care (were negligent) or had broken some statutory provision to protect you, and that the injury you sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence or wrongdoing. You can therefore only make an accident claim if someone else’s negligence caused the accident to occur, or they should have taken reasonable steps to prevent it. Your solicitor will be able to collate all of the evidence in order to assess your case and advise on the best way to pursue a claim.

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The Accident Claims Process

Your accident claim will be made against the responsible party, i.e. the person or organisation that caused your accident. In most cases, when a personal injury claim is put forward, the insurance company will negotiate a reasonable compensation settlement in respect of your injuries and losses (see our ‘How Much’ section for a general guide on injury types).

Occasionally, the defendant’s insurers will try to deny liability, delay the matter or refuse to negotiate or perhaps even partially blame you so as to reduce your possible entitlement to damages. In these instances your solicitor may decide to pursue the accident claim via court proceedings, if it has good prospects of success.

Dependent upon the particulars of the case, the nature of the personal injury sustained, the response from the insurers and various other factors, an accident claim may either be concluded within a matter of months or could take a year or more. Quite often, issuing court proceedings may quickly persuade the insurers to settle the claim. We will guide you through each step of the claims process.

If you pursue your accident claim with help from The Legal Line’s personal injury lawyers, and the claim is successful, the amount of damages you receive is decided based on the level of injury you sustained, any loss of amenity (your inability to do things after the accident that you could do before) and whether or not you were partially to blame. Each case is assessed individually, however past cases and their compensation awards are used as a guideline.

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Time Limits for Making an Accident Claim

For most accident claim cases, there is a time limit within which any claim must be brought. This is known as the limitation period. For anyone over the age of eighteen, this period is three years from the date of the accident. For children the three year period begins on the date of their eighteenth birthday.

If this period expires and no proceedings have begun, the case will become what is known as ‘statute barred’. There is very limited discretion to allow claims to proceed outside of this period. These rules come from the Limitation Act 1980.

It is always advisable to seek legal advice at the earliest opportunity, when events are still fresh in your mind and information is easily available. Pursuing your case may be more difficult if the accident occurred a long time ago. Your lawyer will also need a certain amount of time to compile the necessary evidence and obtain medical reports in order to begin proceedings, so it is important not to leave it too late.

There are certain circumstances under which an accident claim may be pursued after the initial three year period has expired. If a claimant dies within the 3 year limitation period from the date of the accident, it becomes extended to three years from the date of their death. This is to make it possible for bereaved relatives to make a claim on their behalf. For patients under the Mental Health Act 1983, the time period does not begin until they cease to be a patient under the Act and their legal incapacity is removed.

The court is also able to extend the basic three-year limitation period at their discretion under section 33 of the Limitation Act. They only do so very rarely after examining a case and taking all the circumstances into account.

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Accident Compensation

There are two elements to a compensation award.

The first, called general damages, is for the pain and suffering you may have gone through and any loss of amenity (perhaps an inability to drive, play sports or walk the dog). The award for loss of amenity can be for a short period after an accident or for ever if that is what the medical evidence supports.

The second element of a compensation award, for your losses and expenses, is known as special damages. This aims to put you back in a position financially as if the accident had never occurred. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to the accident so that these can be reclaimed.

In serious cases, where a person may no longer be able to continue their employment, this can be taken into account. Costs for care, equipment, transport and housing modifications can also be factored into the calculations. If the person is still able to work but not in the same role as before, particularly if they held a public service role such as a doctor, nurse, teacher, firefighter or police officer, an extra amount may be awarded for loss of ‘congenial employment’. A court can also make a financial award to recognise that an injured worker's prospects on the open labour market may be limited.  A loss of pension may arise.

If there was a fatal accident, a dependent relative such as a widow and children may be able to claim a statutory sum for their bereavement and funeral expenses, but also sums for the loss of income and contribution to the household in the form of future losses.  A loss of pension may arise and it may also be possible to claim damages for the services such as DIY, gardening and interior / exterior decoration that the deceased family member would have provided. Damages may also be paid to the family to compensate them for nursing a relative if the accident was not immediately fatal.

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How Much Compensation am I Likely to Receive?

The details of each case are assessed individually, as a number of factors affect the amount of compensation awarded in a personal injury claim. These include the extent of the injury, recovery period, any loss of earnings, other losses related to the injury (for example medical expenses and care costs) and whether or not the victim was partially to blame.

Awards made in previous claims of a similar nature are used as a guideline however, together with general guidelines from the Judicial Studies Board. Our ‘How Much’ section provides further information and you can find details of previous settled cases in our personal injury news and success stories sections.

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Further Information on Personal Injury Claims

You can find further details about the various aspects of making a personal injury claim for an accident in our other information pages as follows:

Can You Make a Personal Injury Claim?
Compensation
Compensation - Interim Payments
Damages
Funding Your Compensation Claim
Multi-Party Actions - Can you Make a Claim?
Personal Injury Claims
Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors

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Expert Accident Claim Lawyers

The Legal Line’s personal injury lawyers are experts in all areas of personal injury, with extensive experience in recovering compensation for the victims of accidents, clinical negligence and industrial diseases.

They can provide specialist accident claim advice, assistance and guidance in helping you to pursue your claim to the best possible outcome in the shortest possible time.

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Successful Accident Claim Cases

our personal injury news and success stories sections have details of successful accident compensation claims made by our lawyers on behalf of injured clients.

You can also follow the links below for articles about just some of the many accident claim cases our lawyers have fought and won:

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Details of Accident Cases

Below you will find case studies of accident claim cases handled by our expert solicitors on behalf of injured parties and their families:

Explosion wrecks family life for grandfather

Just a few years short of retirement, our client had expected to work until normal retirement age and then enjoy his time with his wife of many years, his children and grandchildren. A serious accident at work changed all that. Involved in the energy industry, our client was working on an outside site when the defendant, another contractor working in the area, failed to take notice of warning markings and caused a gas pipe to fracture, resulting in an explosion.

Standing with his back to the explosion, our client was hit by masonry, knocked unconscious and hurled many metres across the road. He suffered numerous injuries to neck, arms and shoulder, burns and cuts to his face and the back of his head and more seriously, broken ribs. Taken to hospital he underwent x-rays and treatment for his physical injuries, but it was only some time after the accident that the extent of his psychological trauma began to surface.

Although he returned to work after 3 months, determined to overcome his anxieties caused by his personal injury, this was to prove impossible. He subsequently suffered a breakdown and was forced to abandon hopes of continuing to work. Eventually diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder due to the accident at work, he has received some counselling which has resulted in some improvement to his condition.

Prior to his accident at work, our client had been a sociable, confident person. Now our client is more comfortable in a quiet environment, avoiding friends or anywhere there may be groups of people, stressed if more than one person is talking. Even his grandchildren have suffered as he is unable to tolerate their noisy play and they have been unable to visit since he suffered this personal injury. Previously the couple would have been happy to baby-sit and enjoyed having them to stay. He is also angry and frustrated at the premature end to a job he thoroughly enjoyed.

He is unable to make any kind of decision since his accident at work, always deferring now to his wife. He no longer finds enjoyment in his previous hobbies of collecting various items and most of his collections have now been sold. Neither is it easy for him to help with heavy tasks around the house, though he insists on trying to do so. Any exertion aggravates his injuries, leaving him in pain for several days afterwards.

Unable to drive at all for several weeks following the accident at work, even now our client is unable to drive more than short distances without becoming distressed. As his wife is unable to drive, this has seriously curtailed their ability to enjoy even the odd day out. He is even uncomfortable as a passenger and even family celebrations have proved too traumatic for him to attend.

Liability for the accident at work was admitted by the defendants, and our personal injury lawyers, who specialise in accident claims, were able to negotiate a sum of £125,000 in accident compensation for this traumatic life changing accident.

Stewardess injured at work after failure to address known manual handling problems with trolleys

For over 20 years, our client had enjoyed her work as an air stewardess, and for almost 10 of those she was employed by the defendant. On one particular flight however, she was injured at work whilst carrying out her normal duties. She had experienced previous problems with extracting trolleys from their storage areas, as had many of her colleagues, but on this occasion, she injured her neck as she struggled to disengage it.

After several attempts at manually handling the trolley, our client felt a pain in her neck and shoulder, as if she had pulled a muscle. Another member of the crew had to remove the trolley but not without considerable further difficulty himself.

Although in some discomfort from this injury at work, our client continued with her duties for a short time but then went to take a rest break to try to alleviate the pain. When she tried to lie flat, the pain in her neck became even more severe. That night, she was unable to sleep due to the pain, and went to see a workplace doctor. It was thought that she had trapped a nerve and she was unable to work the next day. She had lost all power in her arm and had numbness in her fingers, so went again to see a workplace doctor. She then attended her local hospital where x-rays were taken. These showed that the accident at work had caused damage to her neck and an MRI scan confirmed she had 2 discs resting on her spinal cord.

Our client underwent surgery, to remove the discs, which has left a very visible scar. She still suffers pain in her neck and shoulder, as well as the numbness in her arm and restricted movement in her neck. As a result of this manual handling accident, our client was unable to return to work for several months. Further treatments, which in themselves involved a week’s absence from work each time they were administered, have alleviated the symptoms for short periods but they always return.

She has now been advised that the treatments cannot continue long-term so faces the prospect of the pain, and numbness returning permanently. The constant pain affects her sleep, often waking her as the pain is so severe, and she has recently been advised that further surgery may be necessary. Despite all of this however, she continues to live her life as normally as possible.

The design of the trolley and its storage area has been a frequent source of concern, and has even caused similar accidents at work in the past. The problem has been highlighted to the defendant on many occasions and a procedure does exist to identify damaged trolleys. Unfortunately, they are regularly returned to service without being repaired, though the trolley does not have to be damaged for it to jam in its storage bay. Often, because of their sheer weight when fully loaded, only brute force will enable the trolley to be disengaged. Add to this the fact that this must be done with one hand, whilst the other presses a release mechanism, and this was an work injury that should have been prevented.

Liability was originally admitted by the Defendants insurers. Then when proceedings were issued, they sought to resile from the liability admission. Despite then denying liability, they settled the claim a week or so before trial for virtually the full value of the claim. Our personal injury lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors, who specialise in fighting workplace injury claims, were able to secure over £18,000 for our client in work injury compensation.

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