Quite a lot of people are aware that where they have been injured through no fault of their own they could be entitled to compensation. As such, they seek to instruct a lawyer to act on their behalf. What most people are not sure about is how claiming for compensation works. Here is a quick guide to the claiming process for most general accidents, such as accidents at work or accidents in the street.
The very first step is getting in touch with your injury lawyer and providing them with as much detail as possible about your accident. So, if you tripped over a piece of defective paving whilst you were out shopping, your injury lawyer will need to know the precise location of the defect. For example, it could be outside the entrance of a shop, or if it was outside a house, the number of the house and name of the road would be useful. Of course, taking pictures of the defect and the accident location is also particularly helpful.
Once we have all your details, the details of the accident, and we know who we are to pursue your claim against, we then compile what is called the Letter of Claim. This gets sent to the negligent third party and outlines what has happened and why we believe they should compensate you for your injuries. By law they are entitled to a period of 21 days in which to respond to this letter and acknowledge receipt.
Once the other side have confirmed that they are to investigate your claim they are allowed a further three months to carry out these investigations. Straightaway I must point out that this is in no way to say that the other side will take three months to investigate your claim – they could investigate it and admit liability within a couple of weeks. It really depends on how speedy and efficient the other side are in dealing with your claim.
Where liability is admitted your injury lawyer will arrange for you to see a medical expert who will compile what is called a medico-legal report. Once your lawyers receive this they see if you are happy with it and then go about valuing your claim. The medical report will then be disclosed, with your permission, to the other side and your lawyers will settle your claim for compensation on the best terms possible.
All in all your claim for compensation could be sorted in a few months, and we suggest that in most straightforward cases, a period of 6 – 9 months is about the right amount of time a straightforward claim takes to settle.
If you want any advice or further information please get in contact with The Injury Lawyers today who will be more than happy to help you.
