There are some excellent resources on the internet for finding out about making a claim for compensation. A lot of the key information has been compiled into this blog post, meaning that you don’t need to go on all of the sites to look for it yourself.
What the Law Society say:
The Law Society has lots of helpful advice for the public, including how they can go about finding the right legal assistance and representation. They have a specific section regarding compensation claims which breaks the process down into bite size sections.
They suggest that the process can be made more straightforward with a solicitor, and offer their own search function (www.lawsociety.org.uk/find-a-solicitor) where you can easily find the firms that deal with personal injury.
Once you have got in touch with a solicitor, you can do a number of things that the Law Society recommends. This includes providing all of the details of your case (date of the incident, where it happened, how it happened, witness details, resulting injuries, and so on) and also whether you have suffered any loss of earnings or have incurred associated financial expenses.
What First Personal Injury say:
Websites such as that of First Personal Injury Compensation Claims Solicitors help to describe the incidents that might lead to an injury claim.
They explain that injuries and accidents can occur in many different locations such as in the workplace, out in public, in schools, or when you’re on the road as a driver or passenger.
As a guide, they’ve also got a tool called the “compensation calculator” which highlights a number of injuries and what you could get from the opposing party. This can be helpful if you want to find out what sort of figure to expect from your claim.
What the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers say:
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) is a 20 year old not-for-profit organisation made up of 4,300 lawyers. Their website explains how you can fund your compensation claim which is an important consideration in the process.
For example, they talk about conditional fee agreements (no win no fee) which is a written agreement whereby legal fees and expenses are payable in certain circumstances. They suggest that you should speak to your solicitor to find out what the terms of your agreement would be with them.
In general, they say that legal fees become payable when you win your case and your compensation – often your lawyer’s fees and a success fee on top of this. However basic fees would not need to be paid if you didn’t win your claim; this is often done by a form of insurance which would need to be paid if you were successful. This can all be discussed in more detail with your solicitor though.
Other resources
If you are still looking for further general advice and guidance before you start a claim, you could get in touch with the Citizens Advice Bureau who can speak to you about the compensation process.
I have never had the need to seek injury compensation, but I did once suffer an injury while working. It was not a big deal. I cut myself at work and had to get stitches. The process of filling out work injury paperwork at the emergency center was such a pain, that in the future, given the same injury, I would be inclined to say it was a non-work related injury, and tell them to just stitch me up.