Step by step guide to making a Personal Injury claim

Have you been involved in a road traffic accident? Have you been involved in an accident at work? Have you had an accident on someone else’s premises? If you have and you sustained an injury then have you thought about making a claim?

To some people, the idea of making a claim is intimidating and a scary prospect. However, we have tried to simplify the process to help you understand what will happen, trying to make it a little less scary!

So, when you initially ring a solicitors regarding a personal injury claim they will almost always risk assess your enquiry. This is the process in which they review the accident circumstances and the injuries in order to establish a rough percentage of prospects of success. The solicitors can also ensure that your injuries are likely to attract compensation of over £1,000. This is because any claims under £1,000 will mean the solicitors cannot gain any costs from the Defendant as the claim will be a ‘Small Claims’ claim.

Once the risk assessment has been completed the solicitors will go through their funding arrangement with you which will most likely be a Conditional Fee Agreement (also known as a No Win No Fee agreement).

After all the relevant paperwork has been signed and completed, your claim will be sent to the Defendant insurers who will have a set time to investigate the accident depending on the type of accident. Once their investigations are complete they will inform your solicitors of their stance on liability whether it is a denial or admission.

If Defendant insurers deny liability, more often that not, your papers will be sent to a Barrister who will decide whether the case has sufficient prospects of succeeding in their view. This is to ensure that if we do have to go down the Court route, we will have the support of a Barrister. On the other hand, if liability is admitted it can become a rather quick process of obtaining an independent medical report, valuing the claim and negotiating with the insurers. Solicitors will usually be unable to value the claim until a medical report has been obtained.

If the case does have to go down the Court route then this will obviously be a longer process. Some of the things your solicitor will have to do within the Court process include drafting witness statements, exchanging relevant documents and preparing further documents requested by the Court. However, don’t be put off by the prospect of Court. It is very rare that claims actually proceed all the way to a trial.

If you think you deserve to be awarded compensation after being injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault then give our friendly and experienced solicitors a call on 0845 658 6115.