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The claims process

If you have been injured in an accident during the last 3 years which you believe was caused by the fault of someone else, you may be entitled to make a personal injury claim for compensation for the injuries which you have suffered and any consequential financial losses that you have incurred.

This is a rather simplified overview of the personal injury claim process and gives a variety of scenarios that may occur along the way.  We cannot predict exactly how a personal injury claim will run or how an Opponent will react. However the personal injury claim process, set out in the steps above provides useful guidance to anyone who is thinking of making a claim for compensation for personal injury.

Use the calculator on the right for an instant calculation of your claim, or call us now on 0800 849 2220

A personal injury claim can be made on a no win, no fee basis using specialist personal injury lawyers at QualitySolicitors Oliver & Co, and below are the steps of the personal injury claim process:

• Once you have decided to make a claim and spoken to one of our personal injury solicitors about your possible action and the prospect of success, we will set up a file for you and ask you to enter into a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with us.
• At QualitySolicitors Oliver & Co Solicitors we offer a representative of our firm to meet with you to help you go through the ‘no win, no fee’ agreement and answer any of your questions before you enter into the agreement. This meeting can take place at a location that is convenient to you.
• Once the ‘no win, no fee’ agreement has been returned to us, we will draft a Letter of Claim to be sent to your Opponent which will detail the circumstances of your  accident and why you consider the accident was caused by the fault of your Opponent.  It is important that this letter is as accurate as possible and so before this letter is sent to your Opponent we will send a copy to you so that you can check that it is factually correct and approve its contents.
• Once the Letter of Claim has been sent to your Opponent, they are required to acknowledge that they have received the letter within 21 days and then they have a further 90 days to investigate the claim and respond to us with their view on fault – i.e. whether or not they accept that they are to blame for your accident and whether they are willing to pay you compensation or whether they intend to fight the claim.
• Sometimes, Opponents do not respond at all and in this situation we are entitled to ask the Court to order them to provide any documentation that we have requested from them to assist us in assessing the strength of your claim.
• In the majority of cases, an Opponent will normally let us know whether they are prepared to admit or deny fault for the accident.
• If they admit fault, we would then ask you to attend a medical appointment with an independent medical expert who would examine you and study your medical records. The expert will provide a medical report detailing your injuries and giving their opinion on both how long you have suffered with symptoms for and how long you will continue to suffer symptoms for. In some cases they may say that further medical treatment is necessary. The medical report is extremely important as it allows both ourselves and your Opponent to put a financial value on your injuries.
• Once you have approved the medical report a copy is sent to the Opponent, we will then enter into negotiations with them to try and agree a settlement figure.
• If you recover from your injuries relatively quickly and your Opponent admits fault early then a settlement can usually be reached quite quickly, within a matter of months.
• If your Opponent denies fault for the accident, then we have more of a fight on our hands. We would look to obtain the advice of a Barrister to advise us on your claim’s prospects of success should the matter proceed all the way to a Trial. This is extremely useful as Barristers have day to day experience of fighting these types of cases in front of a Judge at Trial and as such, they can take an impartial view and advise as to what a Judge is likely to think of the case.
• If the Barrister is happy with the prospects for success, we will then obtain a medical report in the manner and for the reasons set out above and issue your claim at Court. This basically means that your claim becomes logged at Court and we become part of the Court’s timetable, heading towards a Trial date. A Trial date is normally about 9-12 months after issuing at Court there is therefore plenty of time for the case to settle out of Court. Just because a claim is issued at Court that does not necessarily mean that your claim will go to a Trial.
• There are a number of procedural matters that need to occur before a Trial relating to the gathering and exchange of evidence and this is why there is a delay.
• If your claim does not settle outside of Court, then a Judge will decide the outcome at a Trial. You will be expected to attend the Trial to give evidence. We will have prepared a witness statement previously with you and you will be asked to confirm to the Judge that the witness statement is yours and that it is true. Your Opponent’s Barrister will then ask a series of questions to help clarify certain aspects of the statement.
• Any further evidence provided either on your behalf or on behalf of your Opponent will be reviewed by the Judge and then a Judgment will be given.

This is a rather simplified overview of the personal injury claim process and gives a variety of scenarios that may occur along the way.  We cannot predict exactly how a personal injury claim will run or how an Opponent will react. However the personal injury claim process, set out in the steps above provides useful guidance to anyone who is thinking of making a claim for compensation for personal injury.

Use the calculator on the right for an instant calculation of your claim, or call us now on 0800 849 2220

* How the calculator works            * Types of claims
* No win, no fee                              * Compensation
* The claims process                      * Home

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