Compensation For Accident - Claim Compensation For Injury

Compensation For Accident: Help And Advice

Claiming Compensation For An Accident Or Injury

Anyone can suffer an accident or injury but it is true to say that in the UK we are far more likely to think about claiming compensation for injuries than we would have been a few years ago. This change has in part been brought about by the rapid growth in the number of law firms and others offering to make claims on a no win no fee basis.

This has served to greatly encourage people to proceed with a claim as it appears that they have nothing to lose and potentially quite a lot to gain. There have, however, been regular complaints about the practices of some of the companies offering this service. The problems are mainly to do with people believing that they would not have to pay any money whatever happened, and then finding they get presented with large bills when the case is lost. There is also the suggestion that the proportion of the compensation taken by the solicitors when the case is won can be excessive and therefore reduce what the claimant was really entitled to.

How No Win No Fee Claims Work

Some companies that help you make a claim for accident compensation are law firms with their own team of specialist lawyers who deal with the cases. Others are just agencies that collect details of claims and then sell them on to law firms. The other type of organisation is claims assessors. These are not lawyers at all and will attempt to win you compensation without going to court.

The whole basis of a no win no fee arrangement is that the solicitor cannot claim any fees for their work unless the claim is a success and compensation for the accident is awarded. This is great for the claimant as they know they should not be left in a situation where they have lost the case but then have huge legal costs to pay. The other side of the coin, however, is that the solicitor will usually want a higher than standard fee if they win. This is to cover the fact that they are engaged in an inherently more risky business, where they could end up not being paid for some of their work.

The result of this for a successful claimant is that they will probably end up paying out more for a successful claim through a no win no fee solicitor than they would if they had opted to pay the standard fees. It has even happened that the costs of a successful case have been more than the amount of compensation they were awarded. In some cases you will be asked to pay for an insurance policy that pays out if the case is lost, in order to cover the legal fees.

Can I Trust Accident And Injury Lawyers?

There has been much debate about the bad experiences that some people have had at the hands of companies who handle compensation for accident claims. Some of these are around the costs involved and the fact that people were not aware of what they were getting into and some concerns have been around the aggressive and intrusive ways that some firms employ to find clients. The obvious example being when people hang around hospitals and then try to persuade people to sign up for their agreement when they are still recovering from an injury. Sometimes when an insurance policy is offered to protect against the costs of losing, the policy costs can be excessive and some people have even been persuaded to take out loans to cover this.

Having said that, it should be remembered that there are sill plenty of effective and trustworthy solicitors out there who offer a transparent and reliable service. Most people would not relish the idea of tackling a potentially complicated compensation for injury claim without someone to help steer them through the legal minefield. You just need to be careful about who you use and have an awareness that some of the organisations out there will happily take quite a lot of money from you.

What Are Claims Assessors?

As mentioned previously, not all firms that offer to help you claim compensation for accidents are solicitors. Some are what are known as claims assessors or claims managers. These do not have to be legally qualified, have solicitors on their staff or even use third party lawyers. They do, however, have to be properly licensed. Whenever you approach a firm about a no win no claim arrangement, you need to be sure whether they are a law firm or a claims assessor. If the latter, than you need to check that they are legitimate and properly licensed.

How To Make A Compensation For Accident Claim

While you are almost certainly going to need to identify one of more good law firms or claims assessors to talk to, there are other things that you need to consider first. Before you even talk to anyone about the circumstances of your accident, you should make sure that you have as much information as possible to help put your case together. You should have a written record of basic facts such as the date and time of the accident, what exactly happened and where, who else was involved, contact details for any witnesses, etc. Photographs are a very good idea for certain types of accident. For recording the scene at a road accident, damage to vehicles, photographs of any physical injuries sustained, etc.

If you want to claim compensation for an injury, you must have suffered an injury for which you have had medical treatment. This can be either at your doctor or a hospital, so you should have details of times and dates of any medical appointments you have had and who you saw. It is also important to record details of any expenses you incurred, including keeping any receipts. If you had to travel to medical appointments or if other people had to make special journeys to see you, this all needs recording as you may be able to claim for it.

It could be important to clarify what impact the accident has had on your day to day life, so you will need evidence about the effect on your work, for example. Whether you have had to stop work or have time off, whether you can resume your previous line of work or whether the accident has prevented this. You may need a statement from your employer about some of this information. Similarly, you might require a medical report if your injury has had an impact on your life or is preventing you from doing anything that you would have done previously. A doctor or other appropriate professional will need to write a statement to confirm that this is the case.