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With nearly 33 million vehicles registered for use on UK roads including cars, vans, taxis, buses and lorries, it is unsurprising that road traffic accidents (RTAs) are one of the most common causes of personal injury.
Whether you were the driver or passenger of a car, a motorcyclist or pillion passenger, a cyclist or a pedestrian, if you have been involved in an RTA, you will no doubt have suffered from an injury. If so, you may be able to make a claim for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity (General Damages) and also any financial losses (Special Damages) which you have incurred as a result of your injury.
Once you have instructed us to proceed with your claim, we will send a detailed letter of claim to the Defendant and/or their motor insurers who, according to the Civil Procedure Rules Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims, will have a period of 21 days within which to acknowledge receipt of the letter of claim and then a further three months within which to complete their investigations into liability for your accident.
In order to maximise your damages, we will obtain full copies of your medical records from your treatment providers and we will instruct an independent, suitably qualified medical expert or medical experts as near to your home as possible to examine you and to prepare a report or reports dealing with your injuries. If your claim is not capable of being settled straight away, we will obtain an interim payment to be offset against any future award of damages and we will ask the Defendant insurers to arrange and/or fund any treatment which you may require as a result of your injuries.
We will also work to get compensation for the following:-
If your claim is ultimately successful, you will, of course, receive 100% of any eventual award of damages.
If we feel that your claim has more than a 50% prospect of success we will be able to offer you a CFA.
If your claim is ultimately successful, most, if not all, of your legal costs will be recoverable from the Defendant insurers.
If, however, your claim is not successful, we will have taken your claim at our own risk and we will write our costs off, unless there is a policy of Legal Expenses Insurance in place which insures you against the cost of losing your claim (please see below).
This is a policy of insurance which supplements the CFA and protects you against the cost of losing your claim if, for any reason, your claim is unsuccessful.
At our first meeting we will ask you to check whether you have the benefit of Before the Event Legal Expenses Insurance. If you were the driver of your vehicle, you may have the benefit of legal expenses insurance attached to your motor insurance policy or, if you were an innocent passenger in a vehicle, you may be able to utilise the driver’s legal expenses insurance, such as home insurance; with bank accounts; or through your membership of a Trade Union.
If you do have the benefit of legal expenses insurance we should be able to deal with your claim under that policy and, even if your insurers try to compel you to use their panel solicitors before court proceedings are issued, they have to allow you freedom of choice of your legal representative when court proceedings are issued.
If you do not have the benefit of legal expenses insurance we can take out a policy of After the Event Legal Expenses Insurance to protect you against the risk of losing your claim. The policy premium is deferred and self-insuring. If your claim is ultimately successful we will recover this as part of your claim for legal costs from the Defendant insurers. If your claim is unsuccessful and costs are awarded against you then the insurance will cover you for these costs up to a maximum of £100,000.
Even if you believe that you were partly to blame for your accident you may still be able to claim some compensation from the insurers of the other vehicle.
If you were an innocent passenger in a vehicle which has been involved in an accident and the accident was someone else’s fault you are entitled to claim compensation.
If the driver of the vehicle in which you were a passenger was either partly or wholly at fault for the accident your compensation will be paid by their insurers, not them personally. So, even if the driver is a friend or family member, you should not avoid claiming out of loyalty – you are entitled to compensation and they will want you to receive the compensation you deserve.
Although pedestrians do have a duty to take reasonable care for their own safety accidents do happen and in many cases the pedestrian is not at fault in any way. Unfortunately, children are particularly vulnerable.
Whether you cycle for pleasure or as a mode of transport, you will often have to ride on the road which leaves you vulnerable to accidents caused by other road users or, indeed, the poor condition of the road.
The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) is a body set up to meet the compensation for victims of uninsured or untraced drivers. Unfortunately, it is honest motorists who have to pay increased premiums to cover the costs.
If you have the misfortune to be hit by an uninsured or untraced motorist we will be happy to submit a claim to the MIB on your behalf.
Please note that, whilst the MIB will pay your legal costs in pursuing a claim under the Uninsured Drivers Agreement, they will not pay your legal costs in pursuing a claim under the Untraced Drivers Agreement and, therefore, we must pursue such a claim under a different funding arrangement which we will discuss with you at our initial meeting.
One of the most important things you can do following an accident is to preserve the evidence of what happened in case of any dispute over liability, even if the other party admits liability for the accident at the scene:-
Please remember that you are under a duty to mitigate any losses which you suffer as a result of your accident, whether that is by obtaining the treatment you need to aid your recovery or by not incurring unreasonable financial expenses.
