If you have been involved in a road traffic accident which was not your fault, and as a result you have sustained injuries and loss, in all likelihood you could be due compensation. For example, if you were stationary at a roundabout and someone has driven into the back of your vehicle, and you have suffered a whiplash injury as a result, you are entitled to be compensated for the whiplash injury.
Similarly, if you have been correctly proceeding down your side of the road and another driver negligently pulls into your lane and collides head on with you, you could be compensated for any injuries you have sustained in the accident. The best thing to do, once you have been able to attend a hospital or your GP, is to contact a specialist personal injury lawyer with experience in dealing with road traffic accident claims – they can advise you as to whether you have a potential claim and will be able to provide quality representation. In the meantime, here is a quick guide as to how the compensation process works.
On the 30th April 2010 a new protocol was introduced to deal solely with road traffic accidents between particular values. The majority of road traffic accidents will be dealt with under this process and it must be said that this new process is much, much quicker than its predecessor.
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My message to anyone who is thinking of making a claim for compensation for injuries they have suffered at the hands of a negligent third party, is to instruct a quality and expert injury lawyer working under a Genuine No Win, No Fee agreement, and one who, importantly, has not paid a referral fee for your claim! The reason is simple – lawyers who pay referral fees have less money to spend on you and have demonstrated at first instance that the reason they want to deal with your claim is not because they genuinely care for you, but because they want to make a quick bit of cash.
What are referral fees?
A referral fee is a sum of money paid to an insurer, claims company, or even garages and the police (apparently) by your legal representative to get hold of your details after you have had an accident so that they can take on your compensation claim. For example, law firm (A) will pay insurer (B) £1000.00 so that they can get the details of your accident and your contact details to enable them to get in touch with you and convince you that you should be making a claim for compensation with them. In other words, lawyers who pay a referral fee for your claim are saying that you are merely a pawn in their grand business plan. Once a lawyer has paid a referral fee for your claim, you will no doubt be bombarded with text messages and cold calls – after all they will be desperate to get you on board – they have just paid a significant sum of money to get your claim information.
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OK – so you’ve had a car accident, it wasn’t your fault, and you’re wondering what on earth you should do to sort it all out! It can be particularly scary if it’s your first time in an accident as well; made even worse if the driver at fault was being quite nasty with you as they knew they were at fault, and were perhaps trying to dodge the bullet.
Here is your one stop shop advice guide as to what exactly to do. My best suggestion is read this first before you do anything (and I mean anything – including speaking to your own insurers) and you will hopefully be able to rest a little easier when you know what you need to do.
At The Scene
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For those who may not be sure, here is a bit of advice on what an Accident Claim is, what it entails, and what happens if you make one:
An accident claim is generally a claim for compensation for injuries and loss incurred after an accident you have been involved in that was caused through no fault of your own. The accident must have been caused by someone else’s negligence – whether it’s a person or a company. You can actually be partly to blame, and still make a claim, subject to a reduction in your payout. But, ultimately, the thing to know when trying to figure out of you have an accident claim is whether the accident was the fault of someone else.
If this accident has caused you to suffer any sort of injury, you are entitled to make a claim for compensation that reflects the nature, severity, and length of the suffering involved. You are also able to take in to account for any literal financial losses you incur as well; a matter I will come on to shortly.
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In most cases, making a claim for compensation for the injuries you have suffered out of a relatively minor road traffic accident is actually a quite straightforward and fast process. At The Injury Lawyers we are well aware of a perception that some people hold that claiming for compensation takes years and years and is ultimately not worth the hassle. Yes, we admit that there are some claims that do take a couple of years; however, most straightforward road traffic accidents are settled within a few months or less. If you think you have a claim for compensation arising from a road traffic accident, please do not be put off – it’s easy, especially when you instruct a quality injury lawyer.
The first step of your road traffic accident is to complete what is known as a ‘Claim Notification Form’. Your injury lawyer will take you through this – it is again straightforward. We just collate the details of your accident, get you to sign the form and then submit it electronically to the other side.
Once your Claim Notification Form is submitted the other side have 1 business day in which to acknowledge it and then a further 15 business days to investigate your accident and come back with an admission or denial of liability. Just because they have 15 days does not mean it will necessarily take this long – they could well admit liability within a day, and it really does depend on the efficiency of the other side. One thing for sure though is that it should not take months to resolve. Under previous law the other side could take nearly 4 months to come back to you with their position on liability – now they have roughly 3 weeks. Who said claiming for compensation still takes ages?
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If you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, and you have been injured as a result, you may have a claim for compensation.
Another term for compensation is ‘damages’ and there are two types of damages for which you can claim – these are General Damages and Special Damages. General damages is the compensation for your injuries – i.e. for the pain and suffering you have endured and the effects those injuries have had on your life. Special damages are the quantifiable financial losses which you have suffered as a result of your accident – these will be the topic of the following blog.
There are many types of losses which you can recoup and claim back from the other side – I have listed some of the more common types below:
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If you have had an accident in Scotland, you may be surprised to know that there are variances between England / Wales law and Scottish law that could mean the difference between incurring a deduction from your compensation and not being charged at all.
In England and Wales, for most claims for compensation, your injury lawyer has the ability to recover all of their legal fees directly from your opponent. For example, if you claim for compensation from the insurance of the driver at fault for a car accident, your lawyers should have no problems recovering their legal fees straight from the insurance as well.
With a good injury lawyer, you will never have a percentage taken away, and you will never end up having to pay a penny if you win. These are things you should check beforehand as there are lawyers out there willing to charge, but you don’t have to be charged with the right lawyer!
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At The Injury Lawyers we recover our legal fees from the other side directly if we win your case. If we obtain compensation for you, like we have in thousands of other personal injury cases for our numerous clients, like them, you will get to keep 100% of the compensation you are due. So, if you are awarded £2,000 for your whiplash injury, you keep the full £2,000. There are absolutely no reductions on your compensation made by us.
Sounds great – but there must be some kind of catch, right?
No! Even if you lose the claim, which is unlikely because we only ever take on claims we genuinely believe will be successful, we do not charge you a penny. This is because at the beginning of your compensation claim we take out an After the Event Insurance policy which covers some of our costs should your case be unsuccessful – this way we can recoup some of our losses. And when we win, we can recover our costs from the other side directly. You will not have to worry about facing a hefty lawyers bill.
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At The Injury Lawyers we are expert injury lawyers with a vast amount of experience in dealing with personal injury claims having done so every day for numerous years.
We therefore realise that, as far as compensation claiming goes, road traffic accident claims can often be straightforward. This is because it is often quite clear exactly who is at fault, and an early admission of liability if often forthcoming – meaning that we can get your claim settled in no time at all.
For example, if you are in a stationary vehicle, and someone collides at speed with the rear of your vehicle, and as a result you suffer whiplash, you have a great chance of winning your claim for compensation, as it is clear that the third party is at fault. Under the new road traffic accident protocol, you could have their admission of liability within two weeks or less of notifying them of your wish to bring a claim for compensation.
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There has been a lot in the news recently regarding referrals fees – or as Jack Straw described them, the insurers’ ‘dirty little secret’. Here is a quick guide:
A referral fee is a fee which a law firm pays insurers upon agreement that their insured’s’ contact details will be passed to them where this person is likely due compensation having been involved in an accident whereby they suffered an injury through no fault of their own. This fee can be anything in the region of £200 to £1,000! As such, this has seen the advent of claims management companies, or middlemen, who make their money from buying insured people’s contact details and selling them to law firms for profit. This has been happening for approximately 20 years, believe it or not. Further, as the BBC has reported today, the ‘racket’ goes further than just referral fees – It may involve cold calling or texting potential accident victims who have not provided their mobile numbers to any of them directly.
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