Serious Injury Solicitors: Making a Claim

Serious Injuries

Following a catastrophic injury, an individual’s life can be changed drastically. Whether another person’s negligence has caused a traumatic brain injury, a spinal injuries, amputations or any other injury with long term consequences, the impact upon someone’s life can be huge.

Alongside physical injury, an individual’s mental health and financial security can be threatened. Consequently, compensation should be sought with the help of serious injury solicitors, so that the individual can begin to rebuild their life.

Serious Injury Claims Process

Firstly, you should take time to ensure that you receive the necessary medical treatment and advice whilst recovering. If any expenses are incurred during this recovery period, you should keep the receipts for evidence.

If it is possible, take some photographs of your injury, these can also be very useful for evidence. Next, if there were any witnesses to your accident, take their details as they may be required later in the process.

If the injury took place at work, place the details of the incident in the work accident book which your employer is legally required to keep.

Once these steps have been taken, the process for the injury claim can commence. After we have received your enquiry via the online form, we will contact you to discuss the process, funding, and timescales. We will also want to gather facts to ensure that we can provide you with the most effective advice.

After this, our serious injury solicitors will confirm that we can proceed with your serious injury claim. Subsequent to this confirmation, we will send you our paperwork to read and sign.

The defendant will then be notified of the claim via a Letter of Claim and it is hoped that they will admit their liability. They will have time to consider this. Following liability acknowledgement, compensation negotiations can commence and the claim may settle quickly, depending on the circumstances and complexity of your injury.

Alternatively, if the Defendant disputes their liability, the court may have to be involved. This may lead to the case being issued which will inevitably extend the matter and incur further costs. Nevertheless, we will be there to reassure you and provide relevant advice consistently.

Partial responsibility for the accident

Serious injuries often arise from complex scenarios; therefore, you should not worry if the defendant was not 100% liable for the injury. As long as the defendant was the main operative cause of the accident, you can still make a claim. Though your partial responsibility may be reflected in the damages which you receive.

Serious Injury Solicitors: Compensation for serious injuries

Injuries compensation for a serious injury claim will be divided into general damages and special damages.

Firstly, general damages will depend on the type of serious injury e.g. amputation, the loss of amenity caused by this and the pain being suffered.

Then, special damages will be calculated. This compensation will cover the other costs which are related to the injury, such as:

·        Loss of earnings

·        Loss of future earnings

·        Medical treatment costs

·        Home adaptations costs

It can be difficult to provide an exact estimation of the compensation which you will receive as this will depend on the negotiations, or the court’s decision. However, we can refer to The Judicial College Guidelines which provide guidance on the compensation which will be given for specific injuries.

Time limits for serious injury compensation claims  

The time limits on personal injury cases can often be very strict. Therefore, if you have suffered a serious injury and want to seek compensation, you should begin to collate evidence and contact us promptly.

The general rule on time limits is that the claim must be settled three years from the date of the serious injury, or the date which you realised the serious injury related to the accident.

Nevertheless, if the claimant is under eighteen, the three year time limit will begin from their eighteenth birthday. Moreover, if a person lacks the mental capacity to carry out the claim themselves and someone else claims on behalf of them, there is no time limit.

Serious Injury Solicitors: Settling your case

Similar to compensation estimations, we cannot provide an exact period of time in which your serious injury claim will be finalised.

In personal injury cases where the injuries are minor and the defendant accepts liability, we hope to settle within 6-9 months. Therefore, in serious injury matters we would expect that it is likely take longer due to the added complexity.

How much will my claim cost?

At Beacon Law, our serious injury solicitors take on cases on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ basis via a Conditional Fee Agreement. This means that if your case is unsuccessful, you will not pay any legal fees. In matters where we are successful and recover damages, we will take a pre-agreed percentage of the compensation to cover our costs.

We are always fully transparent with our clients so if you have any queries on this, we are happy to answer your questions.

Why Choose Beacon Law’s Serious Injury Solicitors?

The injury lawyers at Beacon Law are experts in the area of serious injury compensation claims.

As a law firm, we believe that our clients should be given the opportunity to rebuild their lives and move past difficult times which arose through no fault of their own.

By always striving to achieve the best results for our clients, we are able to have a great success rate when recovering the compensation which our clients deserve.

To discuss your potential claim and have a chat with one of our injury specialists, please contact us on 03301332857 or use the form above.