Personal Injury Compensation Claim Guidelines

The term "personal injury" entails a great significance among legal terminologies. This legal term connotes any physical injury, disorder or pain or any psychological illness or trauma, which is the result of inefficient environment. As a result of personal injury caused to a person the victim can seek legal remedy by way of lodging a claim for compensation. For the purpose of starting such proceedings it is highly recommended that the person making a claim for personal injury may use the services of solicitors specialized in this field. The solicitors should be authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under a valid registration number, they must have a registered office in the premises of England and Wales and must be duly registered in England and Wales under a valid company number and VAT No.

Specifically in England personal injury comes under the occurrence of damage, suffering, injury or pain due to the negligence of any third party by way of car accident, motorcycle accident, bicycle accident, accident at work, slip, trip or fall at work or at public place, forklift truck accident, general construction site accident, ladder accident, manual handling accident. The types of injuries sustained by such accidents are deafness, head injury, back injury, eye injury, wrist injury, neck injury, leg injury, knee injury, medical negligence, beauty treatment gone wrong, animal attack injury, product liability, and sport injury.

Types of Personal Injury and Compensation Claim

If any person becomes the victim of personal injury at work or any other type of personal injury, it is his right to claim compensation for his loss (psychological, physiological or financial).

In UK compensation of personal injury can only be claimed if the reason of damage was entirely third party and not the mistake of person himself. There are several different categories in which personal injuries fall in UK some of which are explained below;

Types of Personal Injuries;

1. Road Traffic Accidents
2. Accident at Workplace
3. Medical Negligence
4. Accidents at Public Place
5. Accident Abroad
6. Fatal Injury Accident
7. Criminal Injuries

Majority of injuries occurring to people on daily basis are caused by road traffic accidents. Different types of accidents that harm millions of people are car accidents, accidents of buses and coaches, bike or motorbike accidents, hit and run offenses, accidents by uninsured drivers, fatal road accidents, collision with pedestrians and car crashes abroad. These road accidents are most commonly occurring and can result in head injury, back injury, spinal injury, fractured and broken bones, whiplash injuries and even fatalities.

Despite all precautionary measures in any working place either it is industry, power plant, shopping malls, hospital or hospitality industry accidents do occur and cause serious injuries to the workers. If the injury of workers is not their fault then they can ask for compensation claim from their employer. Different types of work environment accidents may include fall from heights, accidents due to faulty equipment, hazardous chemical exposure, electrical shocks, fire and heat burns, accidents by falling objects and slip trip and fall type accidents.

Most unexpected type of personal injury may occur by medical or clinical negligence. Cases of dental negligence can be taken as medical negligence as well. Misdiagnosis of disease, late diagnosis, surgical error, unnecessary surgical operation and long-term negligent treatment are different types of medical negligence. Such medical malpractices can lead to serious nerve damage, organ failure, surgical injuries and even death. Victim of medical negligence can claim personal injury compensation from responsible medical persons.

Slip, Trip or Fall in Super Market

Any public place is assumed to be safe for public, and if a person becomes the victim of serious injury by slip, trip or fall in public place it is his right to claim for compensation of his injuries from the responsible authorities. Loss from any accident which was not a result of your own negligence occurring in schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, pavements or roads, playing parks or at any other public place can be claimed from their representative responsible authorities.

There is a possibility of being caught in an accident even when you are working or traveling out of your country or you are on holidays. Slip, or fall type accidents due to wet floor or improper pavement, serious illness, food poisoning, road traffic accidents, hotel accidents and sports accidents are common types of accidents abroad. If you face any such type of accident which is not entirely your fault then you can make a compensation claim for all your sufferings.

In all cases of accidents fatal accidents are most tragic and horrifying. If any accident results in fatality then family members of the victim can make a fatal accident compensation claim. Usually fatal accidents result due to the serious workplace accidents, severe road accidents or medical negligence. In case of a fatal accident claim can be made on the basis of victim's suffering, pain and his funeral expenses. Family of victim can also claim loss of financial and moral support by the victim.

Personal Injury subjected to a person by another person intentionally in violent action is criminal activity and injury in result of this, is called as criminal injury. It is most devastating to become a victim of a criminal act which can end up with permanent injury or even death. Injury while preventing a criminal act, assaults in case of robbery, deliberate hit and run car accidents, injury by animal attack and injury by direct poison exposure are some types of criminal injuries which can be compensated.

A victim of personal injury can lodge his claim against the responsible authorities. It depends upon the type of injury he faced and accordingly the responsible person will be the one against whom compensation can be claimed.

In case of road traffic accident insurance company of responsible driver will pay the compensation, and in case of uninsured drivers or vehicles compensation can be asked from the Motor Insurer's Bureau (MIB).

To ensure the safety of employees is the responsibility of the employer. In case of serious injury faced by any employee at work which was not his own fault then it is due on employer to pay compensation to his employee.

Medical negligence cases are more complicated. Usually negligence of nurses, doctors or surgeons of any medical place is compensated by the medical board or hospital authorities and in some cases by the responsible person himself.

In case of public place accidents claim of compensation can be lodged against the liable local authorities, highway authorities, the public place owner or responsible government department.

For accidents take place during holidays abroad or working abroad. In different scenarios compensation can be asked from either travel agent, from the company involved, from responsible individual or from the local government of that country.

The person, who caused criminal injury if available and admits his crime, is responsible for paying compensation to the injured person. Otherwise Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) compensates the victims of criminal injury.

• The first step before claiming the compensation is to analyze as to whether the injury was a result of someone else's action or mistake. Whichever the type of accident if the accident occurred due to the mistake of the claimant himself then he is not entitled to claim compensation from anyone. In such case employer or government organization would not be held responsible for paying the compensation.
• It is your duty to report your injury to the responsible department soon after the occurrence of injury and make them aware of that, they became the reason of personal injury. You can complaint government department, local authorities and your employer in corresponding cases. Report to the police in case of road traffic accident and criminal injuries.
• For a successful claim it is necessary to have the names of those who were the cause of the accident which resulted in personal injury. For a strong claim it is better to have proof of accident occurrence and evidence that the accident was not a fault of the claimant but was of any third person.
• Pictorial proofs of accident are important in this regard. Such evidence is considered more helpful for the solicitors. Such pictures can depict easily as to how the accident had occurred and how the claimant got injured. If the accident was also reported to the police soon after occurring it is also very helpful because of the written evidence of an accident. It may be noted that time is of the essence in this case and can be instrumental in winning the claim.
• Witnesses present on the spot while accident had occurred are also helpful during the proceedings of the court. Presence of witness and availability of witness in court assures the plaintiff that he will win his compensation.
• If personal injury is not physiological (broken arm or leg, injured body part) but it is a psychological or internal injury or disease than proper medical or psychiatrists' reports are required for the claim.
• When all the required documentations are available for making the claim including all evidences and witnesses then makes your claim as soon as it is possible without wasting time. You cannot claim for compensation for personal injury after 3 years of accident occurrence.
• To take the legal action against responsible authorities, it is advisable to consult a personal injury solicitor after collecting all evidences. The solicitor then analyses the strength of the claim as to whether the claim is strong enough to get compensation or not. On the basis of valid grounds put forward before the solicitor, the solicitor advises the winning potential of the case.
• If the claim is fairly strong then solicitor speaks to the defendant (employer, government organization, insurers, shop or any other responsible company) and asks them to pay the compensation. Otherwise solicitor contacts with UK courts to deal with the third party to get compensation.
• Personal injury law of UK examines the case properly to check that all conditions are fulfilled to make a compensation claim or not. Court legal process and law have its complications and it is not very easy to get compensation without the services of a capable personal injury solicitor.
• The amount of compensation received by the claimant always depends upon the severity of injury and respective financial loss. More is the physical or financial damage more will be the compensation amount. Medical reports, pictorial proofs of vehicle damage or witnesses of other damages help claimant to get more compensation.
• It is also very difficult to calculate the exact damage, and convert the extent of damage into compensation is not easy. Usually the claimant gets far less amount of compensation than they deserve. Only a skilled personal injury solicitor can calculate damage accurately and then makes it possible to get a fair and equitable amount of compensation.
• There are two different categories of UK personal injury compensation. Category one looks at the general damages which recover after some time (minor or detailed injury or pain). The other category is more advanced which compensates the special damages. Unable to earn for a long time or for a lifetime is one of special damage and its compensation is much more than that of general damages.
• Medical treatment costs of severe damaging injuries can also be claimed. Personal injury solicitors can submit to the court and ask for the temporary payments from the defendant before getting exact compensation. This early compensation can help injured person to be treated easily.
• If the claimant and his solicitor fail to prove negligence of a third party then no compensation would be paid by any authority, and the claimant will fail to receive any compensation.

Imagine that you have been confronted with a situation where you have been injured not due to your own fault but due to somebody else's fault or negligence. That situation may involve to mention a few are a road accident, various types of accidents at work, trip or slip, illness caused by environment/pollution at work, clinical negligence, or even injuries caused to students at the school due to anybody else's negligence there. In all these situations you have a definite case for lodging a compensation claim. Although the law entitles you to lodge a claim against the defendant (the party at fault) all by yourself but there are several complications involved that will make it difficult for you to handle the situation and as a result you may end up with losing the compensation claim or not get full compensation.

There are a number of benefits claimant gets if hired personal injury solicitor for his case.