Personal injury claims solicitors

If you have suffered a serious injury as a result of somebody else’s negligence (breach of their duty of care), we may be able to help you make a claim for compensation.

Depending on the circumstances of your accident and the severity of your injury, we may also be able to help you claim compensation:

• where someone else was responsible for causing the accident but you were also partly to blame
• where your injuries were caused by an untraced driver in a ‘hit and run’; 
• where you were the victim of criminal violence.

You can make a claim on behalf of:

• yourself – for your own injuries;
• an injured child who is under the age of 18 (as their litigation friend);
• an injured adult who does not have mental capacity to claim for themselves (as litigation friend);
• the estate of someone who suffered a fatal injury (as their personal representative/executor);
• for your loss of dependency on someone who suffered fatal injury.

For compensation claims relating to injuries which occurred in England or Wales the general rule is that court proceedings must be issued (formally started) within three years of the date of the injury. In most cases, before a claim can be issued work must be carried out to investigate the claim, notify the defendant and the insurance company against whom the claim is being made and obtain a medical report to support the claim. The sooner you contact us after an injury has occurred, the sooner we can begin to help you, and the better we can investigate and prepare your claim.

Longer time limits apply to children, whose three-year time period only begins to run from the age of 18, meaning that their time limit expires when they reach the age of 21. As with adults, however, the sooner you contact us after your child’s serious injury, the sooner we can start helping the child and obtain financial help via the claim.

Time limits do not apply for those who lack mental capacity. Where an injured person’s mental capacity is uncertain, we work closely with our Court of Protection team to determine whether our client has capacity to bring their own claim. As with other claims, it is always advisable to contact us as soon as possible after the injury, to ensure that evidence can be preserved, rehabilitation started (where needed) and financial help secured via the claim.  

In exceptional circumstances the court may extend the time limit (or limitation deadline), such as in asbestos-related disease claims where it was not known that an injury had occurred until after the deadline for making the claim.

If the injury occurred in an accident abroad [link to the new accidents abroad page when Kim has approved it], the law of the country where the accident happened will determine the time limit for making a claim. These time limits vary from country to country and can be much shorter than the deadlines in England and Wales. If you have suffered a serious injury that was not your fault whilst working, travelling, studying or on holiday abroad, you should contact us for advice straight away.

If you or someone in your family have suffered a serious injury in an accident which was caused by someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to claim compensation. Accidents leading to injury can occur in many situations where negligent mistakes are made. To speak to one of our experienced solicitors, free and confidentially about whether you can claim, you can contact us here.

Common causes of serious injury claims include:

• road traffic accident (RTA) causing injury to:
  • drivers in vehicle collisions;
  • passengers;
  • pedestrians; 
  • motorcyclists; 
  • cyclists; 
• accidents at work;
• falls, slips and trips;
• exposure to asbestos; 
• accidents in schools; 
• accidents abroad;
• sporting accidents;
• accidents in public buildings and facilities;
• faulty or defective products;

criminal injuries (CICA claims)

Our personal injury lawyers are specialists in catastrophic and severe injury compensation claims. Our clients have often suffered life-changing injury resulting in permanent disability. Our aim is to assist their recovery by securing funded rehabilitation whilst supporting them in adjusting to the  changes to their lives and securing compensation to meet their needs in the future.

Our clients usually have suffered one or more of the following:

• head injury/brain injury; 
• spinal cord injury (SCI) - paralysis, tetraplegia, paraplegia;
• loss of limbs or amputation;
• major trauma /multiple injuries;
• fractures (broken bones) - spinal fractures, skull fractures, maxillofacial injury;
• asbestos-related disease;
• musculo-skeletal injury;
• blindness, deafness or sensory impairment;
• nerve injury;
• electrocution, burns or scalds;
• chronic pain conditions, such as CRPS;
• degloving injuries (needing skin grafting);
• scarring and disfigurement;
• stab wounds and severe lacerations;
• psychological injury, such as PTSD;
• internal injuries, such as damage to organs;
• fatal injury/death.

The amount of compensation that an injured person receives in a personal injury claim depends on a number of individual factors:

• the severity of the injury;
• the extent of any permanent disability caused by the injury;
• the impact that the injury has on their ability to live independently, study, work, or participate in leisure activities;
• additional needs arising from their injury, such as care, specialist equipment or an adapted home;
• their life circumstances before the accident;
• their predicted lifespan;
• litigation risk factors, such as contributory negligence.

Depending on the client’s injury and the way it affects their life, their claim may include compensation for:

• pain, suffering and disability;
• rehabilitation:
  • funded directly by the defendant’s insurer;
  • funded from interim payments;
  • future rehabilitation costs funded from final settlement;
• costs of care;
• case management;
• costs of medical or surgical treatment;
• therapies:
  • occupational therapy (OT);
  • physiotherapy;
  • speech and language therapy (SALT);
  • psychological counselling;
  • pain management;
• loss of earnings and pension;
• additional costs of adapted accommodation;
• assistive technology (IT);
• prosthetics (after amputation);
• specialist equipment and aids;
• extra costs of transport or adapted vehicles;
• special educational needs (SEN);
• Court of Protection deputyship;
• funeral costs (fatal cases);
• bereavement damages (fatal cases);
• loss of dependency on the deceased’s income or services (fatal cases).

Compensation is carefully structured to make the best provision for the injured person’s needs. There are rules protecting compensation for children or adults who lack mental capacity. Compensation may be paid in one or more of the following ways:

• Rehabilitation Code funding – paid directly by the defendant’s insurer to pay for the injured person’s rehabilitation;
• interim (advance) payment whilst the claim is ongoing;
• a lump sum settlement;
• a periodical payments order (PPO) providing lifelong, annual, tax free, index-linked payments for essential costs, such as care and case management, or Court of Protection fees.

The vast majority of our clients’ serious injury claims are settled without the need for a court hearing (trial). Our clients very rarely need to go to court.

Our personal injury specialists are highly experienced in investigating and assessing the strength of each client’s case. From the outset, and throughout the claim, we advise our clients clearly and honestly about their prospects of success.

Court proceedings are issued (started) in many cases but this does not mean that the case will end in a trial. There are many reasons why court proceedings might be issued:

• to protect our client’s right to claim compensation if their limitation deadline (time limit for making a claim) is approaching;
• to force the defendant (and their insurers) to take the claim seriously;
• to push the defendant to admit liability (fault);
• to push the defendant (and their insurers) to make an interim payment to our client;
• so that we can obtain a court judgment, guaranteeing our client’s right to compensation, if liability has been  admitted;
• to encourage the defendant to enter into settlement negotiations;
• to avoid unnecessary delay by setting a timetable, which is overseen by the court, for the steps that must be taken to bring the case to a conclusion.  

We work hard to prove each client’s claim, based on evidence of the circumstances of their accident and the impact of their injury. We encourage cooperation with the defendant’s insurers and negotiate the best possible settlements for our clients. On the rare occasions when a claim cannot be settled without a court hearing, this will be because:

• there are serious, insurmountable challenges with the evidence, or disagreements between experts in a case, which need to be decided upon by a trial judge;
• the defendant’s insurers are using the case to test the court’s approach to a point of law.

In the following circumstances, the law requires a judge to approve an out-of-court settlement, for the protection of those involved:

• where at least one of the injured claimants is a child under the age of 18;
• where the claimant does not have mental capacity to manage their own affairs;
• where at least one of the claimants in a fatal accident claim is a child or lacks mental capacity.

In these cases, the approval hearing will be a short hearing at which the lawyers for both parties explain the circumstances of the case and the settlement terms to the judge. In most cases our client will be expected to be in court during the hearing, accompanied and fully supported by members of our legal team.

The duration of a serious injury claim depends on the individual circumstances of the client’s case. Claims take less time to conclude if:

• liability is admitted by the defendant or their insurer;
• the injured person’s injuries have stabilised and their prognosis (long-term outcome) is clear;
• the injured person’s needs, the costs of meeting those needs and their other financial losses can easily be assessed;

Claims are more complex and may take longer to resolve where:

• the defendant or their insurer disputes that they were negligent or responsible for causing the client’s injury;
• an injured child’s disability and associated needs are expected to change as they grow and develop over time;
• the injured person has suffered catastrophic injury, such as severe brain injury, or major trauma and needs rehabilitation;
• multiple experts in different disciplines are needed to assess complex injuries and the likely long-term outcome.

Our nationally acclaimed serious injury specialists have helped hundreds of individuals and families whose lives have been devastated by accidents on the roads, at work, abroad or elsewhere. We understand the impact that a sudden, severe injury and its financial consequences can have on an individual and their family.

We work hard to secure cooperation with defendant insurers, to provide immediate needs assessments and timely funded rehabilitation for our clients to maximise their recovery in the all-important period immediately following an injury. Wherever possible we also secure interim payments to ease our clients’ financial hardship long before their claims have concluded.

By taking the time that is needed for the client’s rehabilitation and the careful assessment of their long-term needs, we can be confident that each client receives the full support and the compensation they deserve.

An interim payment is a part-payment of compensation which is paid to the injured person, in advance, whilst the claim is ongoing. We can usually secure an interim payment from the defendant’s insurer where they have admitted liability (accepted fault) for our client’s injury.

We use interim payments to help the injured person and their family, who may be suffering financial hardship as a result of the injury. Where insurers are not willing to provide Rehabilitation Code funding, we sometimes obtain interim payments to ensure that our client receives the rehabilitation, case management and therapies that they need straight away.

Interim payments may be used to meet any genuine need, but it is important that the injured person and their family understand that the sums that they have already received as interim payments are deducted from their final compensation at the end of the claim.

Depending on the client’s injury, an interim payment may help meet their needs for:

• case management;
• rehabilitation;
• personal care and assistance;
• physiotherapy;
• occupational therapy;
• speech and language therapy;
• psychological counselling;
• adapted accommodation;
• wheelchairs;
• transport;
• prostheses (after amputation);
• assistive technology and other specialist equipment;
• trials of supported independent living.

By understanding and targeting provision for our clients’ rehabilitation and other essential needs early in the claims process, we help restore our clients’ mobility, independence and ability to participate fully in family and social life, long before the claim has concluded.

If you, or someone in your family has been seriously injured in an accident that was somebody else’s fault, you may be entitled to make a claim. If this feels daunting, alongside everything else that you are coping with in the aftermath of an accident, it may help to remember that:

• our experienced lawyers are here to advise and support you, and deal with the claim on your behalf;
• it costs nothing to find out from one of our solicitors whether you have a claim and what it will mean for you;
• claims for compensation are not personal, but are usually handled and paid by the defendant’s insurers;
• our clients often benefit from:
  • early access to appropriate rehabilitation, treatment and support;
  • interim (advance) payments to meet urgent financial needs;
  • expert advice about your injury, your long-term needs and how to meet them in the future;
  • peace of mind from long-term financial provision.  

The easiest way to get started is to talk to one of our friendly, experienced solicitors. You can talk to us free and confidentially about your potential claim, with no obligation, by contacting us here.

If you decide that you want to go ahead with making a claim, we will gather as much evidence as we can to support your claim. This evidence may include:

• a statement from you about your recollection of the accident, the effect of your injury and other details relevant to your claim;
• statements from any witnesses;
• documents and reports relating to the accident (such as police accident report, photographs of the scene, accident book entries etc);
• medical evidence (such as medical reports on your injury and any rehabilitation needs, medical records etc);
• receipts and other evidence of the additional costs or financial losses as a result of the injury.

We will also contact the defendant and their insurers to begin working towards meeting your immediate needs and settlement of the claim.