By Daniel Picard. Last Updated 4th August 2022. If you’ve sustained a motor vehicle injury from an incident that you weren’t liable for, you may be able to claim compensation. You could receive thousands of pounds from making a successful motor vehicle injury claim. This article will provide examples of when you could make a motor injury claim to better understand your situation. It will also answer important questions such as:
motor vehicle injury claims guide
- In what instances would I be able to claim for a traumatic brain injury while on the road?
- Can I still claim for a whiplash injury?
- In personal injury claims, what financial losses am I able to claim?
- Can I claim against my local council?
- Can I claim if the condition of local highways caused my injury?
- What is the personal injury claims time limit?
- Can I claim against uninsured or untraced drivers?
- What are the benefits of using a No Win No Fee personal injury lawyer?
What Are Motor Vehicle Injury Claims And What Could You Be Owed?
Our advisors are available 24/7, so if you have any questions or queries, such as wanting to know if you’re eligible to make a personal injury claim, please contact us using the details below.
- Call us now using 0333 000 0729
- E-mail your injury details using [email protected]
- Contact us using our online form. We’ll then be able to call you back.
- Use our Live Chat window on the right-hand side of your screen.
Please read on to learn more about personal injury motor claims.
Jump To A Section
- A Guide About Making A Motor Vehicle Injury Claim
- What Are Motor Vehicle Injuries?
- Motor Injuries Caused By Uninsured And Untraced Drivers
- Motor Injuries Caused By The Highways Or Local Council
- Who Else Is Eligible To Claim For A Motor Injury?
- How Long Does The Claims Process Take?
- What Do I Need To Do Before Contacting A Solicitor?
- What Pre-Action Protocols Do Claims Need To Go Through?
- How Safe Are The UK’s Roads?
- Motor Vehicle Claim Compensation Calculator
- What Else Could Be Included In Motor Injury Claim Compensation Payouts?
- Could You Make A No Win No Fee Motor Injury Claim?
- Speak To Legal Helpline Today
- Learn More
- Motor Accident And Injury Claim FAQs
A Guide About Making A Motor Vehicle Injury Claim
You may be wanting to make a motor vehicle injury claim due to another road user’s negligence. If you suffered an injury caused by another person’s reckless driving or conduct, you could receive compensation due to the pain and suffering caused.
A crucial aspect of making a motor injury claim is proving that third-party negligence led to the injury. Every road user in Great Britain has a duty of care to one another in the form of The Highway Code.
In order to claim, you need to show that:
- The third party had a duty of care towards you.
- Their actions breached this duty of care.
- This breach led to your injury.
Whether you’ve suffered a brain injury or a broken collarbone, these principles don’t change. You need to show causation – to form a tangible link between the breach of their duty of care, the accident and your injuries.
For more information on how you can prove that you were injured as a result of negligence, speak to a member of our team today. Otherwise, read on for more information about motor vehicle injuries.
What Are Motor Vehicle Injuries?
You might be able to claim if you’ve suffered an injury from a motor vehicle accident that wasn’t your fault. A motor vehicle accident is one involving motorised vehicles that are legally allowed to be used on the roads, including cars, buses and motorbikes.
Examples of accidents in which you may suffer an injury include:
- A van driver not checking their mirrors, resulting in them turning into your lane without looking.
- Being involved in a car accident due to another car driver speeding. This could cause them to collide with your vehicle, resulting in you making a motor injury claim.
- Driving your motorbike and colliding with a vehicle due to the other driver turning into the roundabout at the wrong time.
Injuries you could suffer from these incidents include ones to your back, neck, head or chest. The compensation you could receive depends on the severity of the injuries and the negative impact it has had on your life.
It isn’t just the initial injury that will be assessed – side effects and repercussions of the incident will also be examined to help provide you with an appropriate level of compensation should your claim be successful.
Motor Injuries Caused By Uninsured And Untraced Drivers
If you make a successful motor injury claim against a driver with insurance, the insurer will pay the compensation you receive. With this in mind, it can be difficult to know what to do if you’ve suffered a motor vehicle injury caused by an untraced or uninsured driver.
In this instance, you may still be able to claim compensation through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). The MIB will consider claims for vehicle damage as well as for the actual injury itself. The company is funded by insurers so that people can receive compensation when claiming for damage caused by uninsured or untraceable drivers.
You can contact them and explain the circumstances that have led to your injuries. The compensation will usually be awarded in these instances, because exchanging insurance details after an accident and having insurance are both necessities of driving a car on the road.
Using a personal injury solicitor can also help in this regard. They can provide you with guidance about making a claim in this way. Our advisors offer free legal advice 24/7 so, if you have any questions about this, please get in touch. They have years of experience and will help you with any motor injury claim enquiry you might have.
Motor Injuries Caused By The Highways Or Local Council
You could be involved in a road traffic accident that wasn’t caused by another road user but was nevertheless caused by negligence. The ability to drive on the road safely partly depends on the road itself being in a good enough condition for you to do that. Councils or highway companies that maintain the roads have a duty of care to keep the roads in a safe condition.
For example, suppose you injure yourself by driving over a large pothole. In that case, you could potentially claim by stating that the road condition has fallen below the standard required to use it sufficiently without injuring yourself. If you were injured in a road traffic accident caused by a pothole, you may be able to claim against the local council or the department designed to maintain the condition of the highways.
Who Else Is Eligible To Claim For A Motor Injury?
You may want to know the eligibility criteria for making a motor injury claim. Assuming that you’ve been injured while using the roads, you may be able to make a successful claim if:
- You were, at most, only partially responsible for the accident. If the accident is deemed to be entirely your fault, you won’t receive compensation. If you are partially responsible, the amount of compensation you could receive will decrease based on the level of blame attributed to you.
- You were the driver of a vehicle, passenger or pedestrian on the road.
- You have been injured. With that in mind, if you’ve only suffered a minor injury deemed to be worth less than £5,000 and you are a driver or passenger over 18, you will need to claim through an online portal as outlined in The Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.
If you’re unsure how much your injury is worth, please give us a call. Our advisors are available 24/7, offer free legal advice and can provide you with a reliable compensation estimate over the phone.
How Long Does The Claims Process Take?
How long the personal injury claims process takes partly depends on whether the defendant is willing to accept liability for the injury. For example, in a more complex claim where there is little evidence of who is liable, it may take longer for the insurers to accept liability.
The claims process could also be longer the more severe your injuries are. This is because the full extent and cost of your injuries may not be apparent straight away.
How soon after an accident do I need to start my claim?
You may be wondering how long you have to claim for your injuries. In most instances, you have three years from the date of the accident or the date you became aware that your symptoms were caused by negligence to make a personal injury claim.
If you don’t make a motor accident injury claim within three years, you most likely won’t be able to claim successfully. There are, however, two exceptions to this.
- If you’ve experienced an injury as a child in a road traffic accident, you have three years from the date of your eighteenth birthday to make a motor injury claim. Alternatively, someone can claim on your behalf by becoming your litigation friend.
- If you’re unable to claim because you don’t have the mental capacity to do so, there is no time limit for you to claim. In this instance, you would also be able to claim through using a litigation friend. If you recover your mental capacity, the time limit will begin again.
Our advisors can offer you free legal advice about the time limits that apply to making a claim. Speak to a member of our team today for more information.
What Do I Need To Do Before Contacting A Solicitor?
The first thing to do if you’re involved in a road traffic accident is to make sure that anyone involved in the accident isn’t seriously injured. If they are, you should contact emergency services to make sure they get the medical treatment required.
Once that’s been done, you would need to:
- Contact the police if the area where the accident happened needs to be cordoned off to make sure no one else gets injured.
- Take note of the third party’s details. This includes getting their name, phone number, vehicle and registration number. If possible, also get their insurer’s details.
- Contact your insurance provider. Under the terms of your insurance agreement, you must notify your insurer of any accidents you were involved in. This is so they can correspond with the other insurer.
- Collect evidence, if you’re able to. This includes taking pictures of the scene, your car and any injuries you’ve sustained. This could be crucial when making a motor injury claim.
What Pre-Action Protocols Do Claims Need To Go Through?
Before your case progresses to the court, the court will expect both parties to have performed specific actions to show that they have attempted to reach a settlement.
The aim of pre-action protocols is to ensure that both parties:
- Understand each other’s positions.
- Decide how to proceed.
- Attempt to settle the issue before it progresses to the court.
- Consider a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to assist with agreeing on a settlement.
- Make sure that the proceedings are operated efficiently. This includes things like working within the required timescales.
- Need to do what they can to reduce the costs of resolving the dispute.
Pre-action protocols involve:
- The claimant writing a letter of claim to the defendant. This will contain details of the claim and facts related to the incident.
- The defendant responding to this letter within a reasonable time. This should be 14 days in the case of a simple claim and no more than 3 months in a very complex one. In this, they should confirm whether or not they accept the claim and, if not, why.
- Both parties providing key documents that are relevant to the dispute.
If one side fails to do these pre-action protocols during a motor injury claim, they could be sanctioned because of it. To learn more about these types of protocols, please call a member of our team using the phone number above. They can be reached 24/7 and offer free legal advice that can answer any questions or queries you might have.
How Safe Are The UK’s Roads?
The Department for Transport provides motor vehicle injury statistics for Great Britain. As part of their latest statistics report, they have compared the casualty figures on the road from 2020 to 2019. As you can see above, the number of registered casualties from 2020 in the four shown categories is lower than in 2019.
Regardless, the figures still show that there were a lot of casualties on roads across Great Britain in that year. There were 115,584 registered road traffic casualties in 2020. These could range from scrapes and bruises to serious injuries, like broken arms or a brain injury. You could suffer anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from these kinds of events that may make it difficult for you to drive in the future.
Therefore, if you’ve suffered an injury due to third-party negligence, don’t wait to see if you can claim. You can simply call one of our advisors for free, and they can tell you in one short phone call if you’re eligible to receive compensation.
Motor Vehicle Claim Compensation Calculator
You might like to know more about the types of things you can claim when making a motor injury claim. There are two potential heads of claim.
General damages relate to the physical and psychological damage caused by the accident, as well as the general decline in your quality of life.
The Judicial College analyses general damages payouts based on the severity and type of the injury suffered. By doing this, they’ve been able to create compensation brackets that cover many different types of injuries. We use these guidelines both in our personal injury claims calculator and over the phone with you to help in valuing your claim.
Below is a list of injuries and their relevant compensation brackets. This could give you a better idea of what you could receive for a motor vehicle injury.
| Area of Injury | Amount of Compensation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brain | £219,070 to £282,010 | The injury in this bracket causes a serious disability. As such, there will be a substantial dependence on others and a constant need for professional help as well as other care. |
| Brain | £43,060 to £90,720 | Injuries in this bracket lead to issues with memory and concentration, the ability to work is reduced and there is limited dependence needed from others for physical and mental needs. |
| Chest | £31,310 to £54,830 | This bracket will include injuries that lead to chest and lung damage causing some continuing disability. |
| Neck | £24,990 to £38,490 | Injuries in this bracket include dislocations and fractures causing severe and immediate symptoms. The injured person may need to have spinal fusion surgery. |
| Back | £27,760 to £38,780 | This bracket contains many different types of injuries, including traumatic spondylolisthesis causing continuous pain and a prolapsed intervertebral disc leading to surgery. |
| Clavicle | £5,150 to £12,240 | An injury in this bracket leads to a clavicle fracture. The level awarded will depend on the extent of the fracture and the residual symptoms. |
| Injuries to Pelvis and Hips | £39,170 to £52,500 | Injuries in this bracket include an acetabulum fracture leading to degenerative changes. |
| Leg | £54,830 to £87,890 | Injuries in this bracket leads to very serious leg injuries causing permanent mobility issues, leading to the need for crutches or mobility aids for the remaining duration of the injured person's life. |
| Knee | Up to £13,740 | Injuries in this bracket include twisting, laceration and bruising injuries. |
| Achilles Tendon | £24,990 to £30.090 | The injury in this bracket causes complete division of the tendon that has been successfully repaired but there is now a limitation of ankle movements. |
As part of your claim, you will usually be invited to a medical assessment where an expert will examine your injuries. They will put their findings in a medical report which will be used to work out how much compensation you’re entitled to.
What Else Could Be Included In Motor Injury Claim Compensation Payouts?
A motor injury claim could also include an amount that relates to the financial impact of your injuries. This is known as a special damages payment. A few different losses and expenditures can be included in this figure.
Here are some examples:
- Loss of earnings – If you’ve sustained a motor vehicle injury, your claim could cover the impact the injury has had on your income. This can include pension contributions and bonuses as well.
- Damage to property – You may have had personal items in the car at the time of impact that are not damaged or destroyed. The cost of repairs or replacements can be included.
- Medical costs – You may require prescription painkillers during your recovery.
It’s important that you retain proof of these losses such as receipts and payslips. Get in touch if you’d like to know what else you could be reimbursed for.
Could You Make A No Win No Fee Motor Injury Claim?
When you claim compensation with the help of legal representation, this can help the claims process run more smoothly. However, it can also bring with it a financial risk.
With a No Win No Fee agreement, you won’t have to pay your solicitor upfront or while your claim is ongoing. You also won’t be asked to make a payment if your claim is unsuccessful.
Instead, your solicitor will take a small, legally capped portion of your compensation if you are successful in receiving compensation.
Therefore, you can rest assured that a personal injury lawyer or solicitor will only take your case if they feel there’s a fairly good chance of you receiving compensation. For more information on a No Win No Fee agreement and how this could benefit you, speak with us today.
Speak To Legal Helpline Today
To learn more about personal injury motor claims and to see if you can claim, please give us a call. Our advisors are available 24/7, offer free legal advice and can provide you with a compensation estimate quickly and easily.
They can also put you through to one of our personal injury lawyers from our panel. You can:
- Call us now using 0333 000 0729
- E-mail your injury details using [email protected]
- Contact us using our online form. We’ll then be able to call you back.
- Use our Live Chat window on the right-hand side of your screen.
Learn More
For more useful information, please use the links below.
To learn more about the core values of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and how they could help you, please visit this webpage.
Do you want to know more about road traffic accident statistics? If so, visit this webpage on the Department for Transport’s website.
Headway is a charity that can provide support if you or a loved one have suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Check out more of our car accident claims guides below:
- Road traffic accident compensation claims
- Claiming for tinnitus after a car accident
- Passenger injury claims
- How to claim for nerve damage after a car accident
- How long after a car accident can you claim compensation?
- Stolen car accident claims
- I was hit by a stolen car, can I claim compensation?
- I had a car accident without wearing a seatbelt, can I still claim?
- Child car accident claims
- Car accident caused by mud on the road
- How to claim compensation for a back injury after a car accident
- Tennis elbow after a car accident
- How to claim compensation for anxiety after a car accident
- I was hit from behind in a car accident, can I claim whiplash?
- Roundabout car accident claims
- I was hit from behind in a car accident, do I need to pay my insurance excess?
- How to make a fatal road accident claim
- How to claim for road traffic accidents caused by animals
- How to claim through the Motor Insurers Bureau
- Merging into traffic accident claims
- Taxi accident claims
Motor Accident And Injury Claim FAQs
Read below for answers to frequently asked questions about making a motor injury claim.
What effect does the Whiplash Reform Program have on your claim?
It means that any personal injury claim made by a driver or passenger over the age of 18 that is worth less than £5,000 will need to be claimed through an online portal. For more information about this, please call us at a time that works for you.
Will I be able to claim for a soft tissue injury?
It depends on the severity of the injury. You may not be able to claim for minor soft tissue injuries that do not impact your quality of life.
Who should I report my motor vehicle accident to?
You have a legal obligation to report it to your insurer. You should also call emergency services if anyone is seriously injured, or the police if an area needs to be cordoned off to prevent further harm. If you do not exchange details at the scene of the accident, you should report the accident to the police within 24 hours.
How long will my claim take to process?
The length of time it can take depends on the case’s complexity and whether the defendant is willing to accept liability.
Thank you for reading our guide on how to make a motor injury claim.
Written by MD
Edited by FS
