Personal Injury Claim Time Limit – How Long Do You Have To Claim?

If you’ve suffered an injury in an accident that was not your fault, you may want information about personal injury claims. This guide examines eligibility criteria and the personal injury claim time limit. Additionally, we look at what exceptions could apply to this limitation period.

If you are eligible to claim and within the time limit, you may want to know more about the type of No Win No Fee arrangement that is offered by our panel of solicitors. This guide concludes with an explanation of this and how having the support of a specialist solicitor could help you.

Should you want to discuss a potential claim, please feel free to contact us for a no obligation call, using our details below:

  • Phone: 0330 000 729 
  • Fill out our online enquiry form and an advisor will call you.
  • Ask about limitations and time limits in our live chat.

Hour glass representing the limitation period.

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What Is The Personal Injury Claim Time Limit?

You normally have to start a personal injury claim within 3 years from the date of the accident that caused your injuries. This is known as a “limitation period”. Therefore, it is important that you start your claim as soon as possible. Details of the 3 years limitation is outlined in the Limitation Act 1980

It should also be noted that your claim may not reach settlement within the personal injury claim time limit (if it is successful).

The next section examines exceptions to the three year limitation period. If you would like to find out if you are within the time limit to start a claim, speak with a member of our advisory team.

Are There Exceptions To The Three Year Limitation Period?

As previously mentioned, there are exceptions to the limitation period of 3 years.

  • If the injured party is a minor (child) the limition period is paused.  However, a suitable adult can apply to the courts or be appointed by the courts to act as the child’s litigation friend. This will allow for the litigation friend to make the claim on their behalf at any time before the child’s 18th birthday. When the child reaches 18 years old, they can then make their own claim up until they turn 21.
  • Injured persons who do not have the mental capacity to manage their own claim will have a time limit suspension put in place indefinitely. This will last for as long as the injured party is without this capacity. If this capacity is recovered, then the three year personal injury claim time limit is in place, giving them three years from the date they regained this capacity. However, a litigation friend can be appointed to manage the claim on their behalf at any time during the limitation period suspension.
  • Fatal claims. If you are making a fatal accident claim, then you will also have three years to begin the process. This may be three years from the date of the fatal accident. However, if the post-mortem concluded an accident and/or illness was the cause of death, you have three years from the date you found out.

Speak to one of our advisors to discuss acting as a litigation friend on behalf of an injured party who cannot claim for themselves.

How Do I Claim Personal Injury Compensation?

In order to claim personal injury compensation, we need to establish that negligence occurred.  Firstly, we need to know if a third party had a legal obligation to ensure the injured party’s reasonable safety (known as a duty of care). However, that is not enough to have a valid claim. Three questions you could ask yourself relating to the eligibility criteria include:

  • Was the duty of care owed?
  • Was this duty of care breached by the third party?
  • Did the breach cause injuries?

This constitutes negligence. Once negligence is established, you might be eligible to seek compensation if the personal injury claim time limit has not expired.

In addition to the above, we also need to collect as much supporting evidence as possible. Evidence is pivotal in personal injury claims to prove liability for your injuries. Examples are:

  • Medical evidence (reports, medical records, physiotherapy records)
  • CCTV, Dashcam, or mobile phone footage
  • Witness contact information. This will allow anyone who saw what happened to be contacted later on to provide a statement.

Call an advisor to have your claim assessed. If you have good grounds to seek personal injury compensation, you can be connected to a solicitor from our panel.

Contact Us To See If You Can Make A Personal Injury Claim

If you would like to seek compensation, think you meet the eligibility criteria and are within the personal injury claim time limit, please contact us for a free no obligation consultation. Should you satisfy the claims critiera, you could be connected to one of the No Win No Fee solicitors from our panel. If a solicitor from our panel takes on your claim,  you will benefit from:

  • Extensive knowledge from our panel of solicitors with decades of experience.
  • Help with collecting evidence.
  • A solicitor to communicate with the Defendant on your behalf.
  • We will also arrange appointments with medical experts that you might have to attend.

The solicitors on our panel offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis under a Conditional Fee Agreement. This means that you won’t be charged upfront or as the claim progresses for your solicitor’s work on it. Furthermore, there won’t be a payment for their services if your claim fails. However, if your claim wins, your solicitor will take a success fee out of the compensation awarded to you. The law caps this percentage.

Should you want to discuss a potential claim, please feel free to contact us for a no-obligation assessment, using our details below:

A solicitor shakes a client's hand after discussing the personal injury claim time limit.

Read More About Personal Injury Claims

A few more helpful personal injury guides from Legal Helpline:

External resources you might find useful:

If you have any further questions about the personal injury claim time limit, call an advisor. The assessment is free and our lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.