By Daniel Picard. Last Updated 4th December 2023. In this guide, we will aim to answer the question “how do injury claims work?”. This guide will show you how the claims process works, the important aspects of making a claim and will explain to you how you could receive a reliable compensation estimate. You could claim for a range of injuries, from a traumatic brain injury to an ankle fracture.
In this guide, we will look at what compensation is and how personal injury claims work. We will also look at the circumstances in which you could be eligible to make a claim.
You might be wondering how much your claim could be worth. We will also examine how compensation is valued in a claim.
How do injury claims work? A guide
To learn more about the stages of a claim and your eligibility to make a claim, please don’t hesitate to contact our advisors if you prefer. Additionally, they offer free legal advice, are available 24/7 and can provide you with an accurate estimate in just a few minutes. Contact us today using the details below.
- Call us now using 0333 000 0729
- Email the details of your injury to us at [email protected]
- Use the live chat window on the right-hand side of your screen
- Contact us through our website
On the other hand, please read on to learn more about claiming for various injuries.
Jump To A Section
- How Does The Personal Injury Claim Process Work?
- What Is Personal Injury Compensation?
- How Can Our Solicitors Help You Make An Injury Compensation Claim?
- What Pre-action Protocols Are In The Personal Injury Claim Process?
- Submitting A Letter Of Claim
- What Evidence Do You Need To Submit?
- Negotiating The Settlement
- How Is Compensation Calculated? – See Example Payouts
- How Else Could You Be Compensated?
- No Win No Fee Injury Claims – How Do They Work?
- FAQs About The Personal Injury Claim Process
How Does The Personal Injury Claim Process Work
If you’ve suffered an injury and are looking to see if you can make a personal injury claim, this guide could help. The first and most important part when making compensation claims is determining whether you’re eligible to claim.
Compensation is money paid to you because you’ve been injured or detrimentally affected by third-party negligence.
Proving negligence revolves around the third party in question having a duty of care. Certain third parties have a duty of care they need to fulfil. If they breach this and it leads to you suffering an injury, you could claim because their negligence led to your injury.
For example:
- Every road user owes a duty of care to all other road users. For this reason, you may be able to claim for injury caused by a road traffic accident. The Highway Code outlines the duty of care that road users owe to one another. If your injury is worth less than £5,000, you would need to claim through the method described in The Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.
- Every occupier or controller of a public place. Their duty of care is outlined in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
- Employers have a duty of care to their employees to, within reason, make sure the facilities are safe and secure enough to be used without causing harm. This is detailed in The Health and Safety At Work etc. Act 1974.
Therefore, to claim successfully, you need to be able to prove that the third party had a duty of care, that their actions breached this, and that these actions caused your injury.
To learn more, please get in touch with our advisors, who are available 24/7 at a time that works for you. They can offer you free legal advice.
What Is Personal Injury Compensation?
Personal injury claims work by compensating people who have been injured in an accident caused by third-party negligence. However, it isn’t just physical injuries you can receive compensation for. You can also receive compensation for psychological damage caused by the incident.
The amount of personal injury compensation you could receive from a successful claim can depend on many factors. These include:
- The extent of the injury
- How negatively the injury has impacted your daily life
- Whether any permanent or life-changing injuries have been caused by the accident.
Furthermore, you can usually receive compensation for all of the injuries you’ve suffered if you’ve sustained multiple injuries in the same accident. So, for instance, if you’ve sustained a ruptured Achilles’ tendon as well as concussion after a motor vehicle accident, you could be compensated for all of these injuries in the same claim. This means that you wouldn’t have to make several personal injury claims for different injuries caused by the same incident.
How Long Do You Have To Make Personal Injury Compensation Claims?
When making a claim for personal injury compensation, there is a time limit to consider. In accordance with the Limitation Act 1980, you generally have 3 years from the date of your injury to begin a personal injury claim. However, some personal injury compensation claims have exceptions applied to their limit.
For instance, a minor would be unable to make their own personal injury compensation claim until they reach the age of 18. From here, they will then have 3 years to begin proceedings. A litigation friend could alternatively make a claim on the child’s behalf prior to them turning 18.
Other exceptions apply to those lacking the mental capacity to make their own claim. To find out what this is or to learn more about the personal injury compensation claims process, contact our advisors.
How Can Our Solicitors Help You Make An Injury Compensation Claim?
If you decide that you want to be legally represented in your claim, finding a solicitor who works best for you is a crucial part of the compensation claim process. You do not only have to work with local solicitors. It’s best to find a solicitor that you work well with and who has knowledge of handling the specific type of claim you are making.
Our panel of solicitors have years of experience handling various personal injury claims and could assist you with the following:
- Collecting statements from eyewitnesses to the accident.
- Helping gather other forms of evidence, such as CCTV footage.
- Arranging an appointment with a medical professional to assess your injuries.
- Guiding you through the process of a personal injury claim.
- Helping ensure that all aspects of your claim are accounted for.
Later in this guide, we will also explain how our panel of solicitors may be able to represent you with a No Win No Fee agreement.
Contact our advisors today if you have any questions about how accident claims work. Additionally, our advisors could offer you free legal advice regarding your claim. They could connect you with our panel of solicitors if they believe that you may be eligible for compensation.
What Pre-action Protocols Are In The Personal Injury Claim Process?
After the accident, the first thing that many people choose to do is appoint a representative, such as a solicitor or a lawyer. The next stage is called pre-action protocols.
Certain parts of the pre-action protocol will differ depending on the type of incident you want to claim compensation for. A solicitor will be able to outline the appropriate pre-action protocols for your specific situation.
The overall aims of pre-action protocols are to:
- Ensure that both parties to understand each other’s situation
- Make decisions on the appropriate way to proceed
- Attempt to settle the issues without proceedings
- Consider a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to assist with reaching a settlement
- Make the proceedings go as smoothly as possible
- Avoid court proceedings, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Specific pre-action protocols depend on the type of incident you’ve suffered. For example, if your injury is from a road traffic accident, there will be pre-action protocols that your solicitor will recommend for that type of incident.
Read on to find out more about what a letter of claim entails, or get in touch with our team today for more information.
How Do You Make A Personal Injury Claim?
Submitting A Letter Of Claim
Understanding what a letter of claim is is an important aspect of answering the question, “how do injury claims work?”. This is because this letter notifies the defendant of your intention to make a claim and breaks down why you want to take legal action.
This involves sending:
- The initial notification – This is called a Claim Notification Form. The insurance company or other third party receives this, and they have 24 hours to respond.
- The letter of notification – This is the letter of claim. This will include details of your injury and explain why you want to claim. It will also outline any financial losses and expenses you’ve experienced due to the injury. This can include rehabilitation costs caused by the injury.
- Waiting for a response – They have 21 days to acknowledge the letter of claim. The response may involve them accepting liability or saying that they need longer to respond.
- The investigation procedure of the claim – If the defendant doesn’t accept liability, they need to still make your solicitor aware. The defendant and their legal counsel then have three months from the date of their response to investigate. This will help them determine if they want to accept liability or not. If they deny liability after three months, they need to confirm why.
What Evidence Do You Need To Submit?
Additionally, as part of pre-action protocols, both parties will share evidence. This should lead to a quicker resolution to the claim meaning that the case may not need to go to court. The more evidence you’re able to provide showing that third-party negligence caused your injury, the likelier it is that you could receive compensation.
This is how injury claims work. By submitting evidence, you can show how negligence led to your injury. Such evidence could include:
- CCTV footage
- Witness reports
- Medical scans
- An independent medical expert (this will usually be arranged as part of your claim)
- Photographic evidence of both your injury and the incident itself
Medical evidence
Medical evidence can be crucial in the claims process. It helps paint a picture, detailing your injuries to better reflect why you want to claim and potentially providing more validity by showing the physical and psychological injuries suffered.
Gathering medical evidence can also include detailing how the injury has affected your everyday life. This could involve keeping a record of notes illustrating the changes and keeping a list of the procedures and medication you’ve been prescribed due to the incident.
Negotiating The Settlement
In a personal injury claim, both parties will use evidence to determine who is liable for an accident, as it may not always be immediately clear. Personal injury solicitors will help collect all of the relevant evidence to determine who is liable and help build your compensation case.
Both parties will send evidence back and forth to determine who is liable for the accident. During the process, compensation offers from both parties can be made and, potentially, rejected until everyone agrees on an amount.
Personal injury solicitors can do the negotiating for you and keep you updated on how much has currently been offered. Usually, the amount of personal injury compensation is agreed upon without the need to go to court. However, this may be needed, in some instances.
If going to court is unavoidable, a judge will hear from both sides, assess the relevant evidence and determine if any injury compensation will be rewarded. If you are deemed partially liable, this may impact the personal injury compensation you could receive.
To learn more about the amount of compensation you could receive, please read the section below. To see if you’re able to claim, please contact us for free using the details above. Our personal injury solicitors have years of experience and can help you get the compensation you deserve.
How Is Compensation Calculated? – See Example Payouts
We’re often asked, “how is compensation calculated?” This section should help you understand how personal injury compensation is valued. Personal injury claims can often be comprised of two main heads of claim. They’re known as:
- General damages – This figure is calculated to compensate you for the pain and suffering caused by your physical and psychological injuries. The value can vary depending on factors such as how severe your injuries are, and the impact they have on your life.
- Special damages – Although not included in every claim, this figure can reimburse you for costs such as loss of earnings or expenses such as prescription costs associated with your claim.
The figures in the table below are examples of possible general damages payments. They have been taken from the latest edition of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Whilst the figures are based on past court cases from England and Wales, your own claim will need an individual assessment before an accurate figure can be arrived at.
| Type of Injury | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries with special damages | Compensation is awarded for multiple serious injuries and their financial losses such as lost earnings and medical expenses. | Up to £500,000+ |
| Brain Damage - Moderate (i) | No prospect of employment with a moderate to severe deficit that is intellectual. | £150,110 to £219,070 |
| Back Injuries - Severe (i) | Involve damage to the nerve roots and spinal cord causing severe pain and other disabilities. | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| Psychiatric Damage Generally - Moderately Severe | This bracket includes injuries that cause significant problems to their ability to function in everyday life and return to work. It will also potentially affect their relationships with loved ones. However, the prognosis will be more positive than in more severe cases. | £19,070 to £54,830 |
| Neck - Moderate (ii) | Cases include soft tissue injuries or the most severe type of disc lesions causing cervical spondylosis. | £13,740 to £24,990 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Moderate | The injured person will have largely recovered and there will be no grossly disabling effects. | £8,180 to £23,150 |
| Shoulder - Serious | Damage to the lower part of the brachial plexus or shoulder dislocation. | £12,770 to £19,200 |
| Arm | Simple fractures of the forearm. | £6,610 to £19,200 |
| Ankle - Modest | Undisplaced fractures, sprains or ligamentous injuries. Whether a full recovery has been made will affect how much is awarded. | Up to £13,740 |
| Fracture of Clavicle | The extent of the fracture and any residual symptoms will affect how much is awarded. | £5,150 to £12,240 |
| Leg - Less Serious (iii) | Simple fibula or tibia fractures or soft tissue injuries. | Up to £11,840 |
If you have any other questions regarding the amount of personal injury compensation you could receive, contact us for free using the above details.
How Else Could You Be Compensated?
Similar to general damages, evidence is very important when claiming special damages. Therefore, the evidence needs to prove the value of the losses you want to claim. Evidence you can use includes:
- Bank statements
- Invoices
- Receipts
The kind of financial losses you can claim compensation for include:
- Loss of earnings
- Loss of future earnings
- Travel costs
- Adaptations to your home caused by the injury
- Prescription/medicine costs
- Private medical expenses
- Costs of needing a nurse
No Win No Fee Injury Claims – how do they work?
You may be wondering what the benefits are of using a No Win No Fee personal injury solicitor from our panel. Their years of knowledge mean that they know how injury claims work and can openly and honestly assess your chances of receiving compensation. They can help you claim the costs of things like rehabilitation and, if needed, could even look into you receiving interim payments if you’re suffering financially due to the injury.
The other benefits include:
- Not paying legal fees to them if the claim isn’t successful
- Not having to pay legal fees throughout the claims process
- Only paying legal fees once your claim is successful. In this instance, your personal injury lawyer will take a small, legally capped amount of compensation.
Therefore, they won’t waste your time. Personal injury solicitors from our panel will only take your claim if they feel you have a reasonably good chance of success.
Contact Our Team
If you’d like to learn more about the claims process, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our advisors.
They offer free legal advice, are available whenever you need and can tell you in just a few minutes if you’re able to claim. Our panel of personal injury lawyers or solicitors are specialised, highly experienced and work on a No Win No Fee basis, and you could be connected with one of them after speaking to a member of our team.
You can:
- Call us now using 0333 000 0729
- Email the details of your injury to us at [email protected]
- Use the live chat window on the right-hand side of your screen
- Contact us through our website
Useful Links
Furthermore, please use the links below to learn more about how injury claims work.
If you’ve suffered a broken bone and would like more medical advice, please refer to this NHS guide.
For more medical guidance about amputation, please refer to this medical guidance.
Would you like to know statistics about road accidents and safety in Great Britain? If so, visit the Department for Transport’s website.
- Claiming compensation for an accident at work
- I was injured due to no workplace training, can I claim?
- Learn more about serious injury claims
FAQs About The Personal Injury Claim Process
See below for answers to FAQs about making a personal injury claim.
How long do personal injury claims in the UK take?
It depends on many factors, such as whether the third party in question is willing to accept liability. Your case will take longer if it requires court proceedings.
How long do personal injury claims take to pay?
Your personal injury solicitor may be able to inform you of the timescale for when you could receive compensation. However, the length of time this takes could vary depending on how complex the case is.
What is the average payout for a personal injury claim in the UK?
It depends on the extent and severity of the injuries you’ve suffered. This will be determined with the help of a medical assessment.
How are personal injury claims settled?
How injury claims work is that the two parties in question assess the evidence regarding the claim to determine who is liable for the injuries. Therefore, they can be settled without the need for the proceedings to reach court.
Written by MD
Edited FS
