Personal Injury Claims: How Much Compensation Could I Be Awarded?

Our Personal Injury expert, Stacey Smith, answers all you need to know about Personal Injury Claims

What is a Personal Injury Claim?

“Personal injury” is a legal term for an injury or illness to the body or mind which is causative by someone else’s negligence/breach of duty.

Personal Injury usually falls within the categories set out below:-

Road Traffic Accident (driver, passenger, cyclist, pedestrian)
Accident at Work
Trip/Slip Accident (Accident on the public highway)
Occupier’s Liability (Accident on premises owned by someone else other than the local authority)
Medical Negligence
Clinical Negligence
Injuries relating to criminal offences (e.g assault)

Personal Injury claims have time constraints which means that a claim should be made and court proceedings issued prior to the expiry of the 3^rd anniversary of the date of the accident.

What is the Claim Settlement Process?

It is advisable to instruct a solicitor upon you becoming aware you have been involved in a personal injury claim.

On the first evaluation of the claim, it will be determined whether your claim is suitable for either the Fast Track (claims valued under £25,000) or the Multi-Track (claims over £25,000). This will allow instructing solicitors to determine whether a claim should be commenced through either the Official Injury Claim (OIC), Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Portal or by way of a paper-based exercise in the form of a Letter of Claim.

Multi-Track Claims

The Defendant will be personally issued with a Letter of Claim in paper-based form which sets out the accident circumstances and a brief description of the injuries. The Defendant will be directed to forward this to his/her insurer. The Defendant insurer will then have a period of 21 days in which to acknowledge receipt of the Letter of Claim and a period of 3 months in which to provide their stance on liability.

Fast Track Claims/Small Value Road Traffic Accidents

A claim under this track will be issued in the Ministry of Justice/Official Injury Claim portal and will be directed straight to the Defendant insurer. The time limit for responding to these claims varies between 30-40 working days depending on the case type. In the event that the Defendant fails to respond in the timeframe set by the portal then the claim will exit the portal automatically and will run in accordance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims (as above).

If liability is admitted then it will be a matter of gaining medical evidence and preparing your claim for settlement which will likely take place out of court in the event that damages can be agreed between the Claimant and Defendant.

For claims where liability is denied the claims process is more protracted and whilst it will involve obtaining medical evidence to support the injuries suffered by the Claimant, it will also involve preparing the claim in readiness for issuing court proceedings.

Court proceedings may be necessary in the event that the Defendant denies liability and has no offers of settlement to make within the pre-action stage of the litigation.

If court proceedings are necessary then the process for this can take up to several months and will require the Claimant’s active engagement when complying with the courts timetable/directions.

How Much Could I Be Awarded?

The amount awarded in compensation will depend vastly upon the opinion and prognosis set out in medical evidence obtained from an independent medical expert. In some cases, more than one report is required depending on the scope of injuries and the duration in which they lasted or are anticipated to last. In certain claims, a medical expert may make recommendations for further treatment or surgery and reserve his opinion until completion of these further investigations after which point he/she will file their final report.

A claim is valued under two components these are:-

General Damages
Special Damages

General Damages are damages suffered for pain, suffering and loss of amenity and are supported by the medical evidence. These are quantified by using the Judicial College Guidelines “JCG” which are designed to provide a clear and logical framework for the assessment of damages in personal injury cases.

Special Damages is compensation to cover the financial losses and expenses incurred as a result of an accident or negligent medical treatment.

Some examples of injuries and their potential values are set out below.

Are Personal Injury Claims Taxable?

The law states that damages awarded from a Personal Injury Claim are tax-free. Therefore, whether your compensation is awarded as a lump sum or as a periodic payment; as a result of a court judgement, or an out of court settlement or whether your claim ranges from a few thousand pounds to millions the rules relating to tax remain the same.

However, it is advisable that if you receive a large sum of money you may need to look into setting up a “Trust Fund”.

What Happens If I Lose My Personal Injury Claim?

As the claim relates to personal injury the principle of Qualified One Way Cost Shifting, otherwise known as “QOCS”, as set out in Civil Procedure Rules 1999 Part 44.13. The effect of this rule is that in the event your claim is unsuccessful the Defendant will not be able to enforce a cost order against you without further order of the court, CPR44.14.

However, there are exceptions to this rule as set out in CPR 44.15, where;

The Claim has been struck out for disclosing no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim;
The proceedings are an abuse of the court’s process
The conduct of
- The claimant
- A person acting on the Claimant’s behalf and with the Claimant’s knowledge of such conduct, Is likely to obstruct the just disposal of the proceedings.

No Win No Fee Personal Injury Solicitors

Whilst we will not charge you privately for our services, our professional retainer with you would be on a Conditional Fee Agreement (No Win No Fee). This means that in the event that you are successful and you are awarded damages as compensation then this firm would be entitled to deduct a percentage of your damages as a success fee. This percentage is capped at 25% of any claim.

Common Personal Injury Claim Calculations

It is important to seek legal advice as the amount you can claim for your injury can vary depending on the severity and complexity of your injury. This will also influence what you can claim from the Defendant.

For example, you could suffer an ankle injury, which you may believe is a sprain, could be a far more complex injury and could result in an injury to your Achilles. As an illustrative example, the guidelines for ankle injuries range from £6,000 to £36,000.

If you have suffered a personal injury it is important that you obtain legal advice to ensure that your claim is pursued correctly and without delay.

You can contact our team on 0114 3583134 or send an enquiry via our contact page and we will get back in touch with you.

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Having sustained an injury at work, I took a few months to decide if/how i wanted to proceed. However, as the injury continued to cause me issues and affect my health, I decided to approach Best Solicitors for legal advice. I am glad I did, the advice they gave me was honest, fair and informative and although they gave no guarantees of the outcome, they were supportive and reassuring to my situation. My solicitor was Stacey Smith and throughout the 4years my personal injury claim went on for , Stacey was supportive and reassuring and consistent in her approach and advice, until the very end when we got the outcome we had been waiting for. Given my own personaI experience, I would recommend both Best and Stacey to anyone in a similar situation.

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