Other Personal Injury Claims

The most common types of injuries that people make a personal injury claim for include accidents at work, road traffic accidents, industrial diseases, medical negligence, criminal injury and slips, trips and falls, but you can actually claim for any type of injury as long as it was the result of someone's negligence or fault, and you did actually suffer an injury or condition as a result of the incident. For example, you may be able to claim for injuries resulting from sport, animals (not just dogs), faulty products and injuries sustained on a holiday or tour.

If you think that you have a case for personal injury compensation, you should seek the services of a personal injury lawyer. Personal injury lawyers often specialise in certain types of personal injury cases, such as medical negligence or work accidents, so choose one that has experience in your type of claim as this will give you a much higher chance of winning your case. You should also look for one who will work on a conditional agreement basis, also known as a no win no fee basis, so that you do not have to pay their legal fees even if you lose the case. However, always read the small print and ask them to explain the agreement to you in plain English to make sure that you understand the agreement or contract into which you are entering. Just because there are adverts on TV for "No Win No Fee" solicitors and agreements where you keep 100% of the compensation, it doesn't mean that your chosen solicitor will work on this basis - check!

For you and your personal injury solicitor to put together a successful claim to win personal injury compensation, there needs to be:-

1. Someone at fault - An individual, company or local authority has to be at fault for your injury. The injury has to have been sustained through no fault of your own and there has to be someone to actually claim compensation off. It does not have to be an individual, it could actually be an insurance company or body like the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) that you are claiming off.

2. Proof of your injury or condition - You should have reported your injury and sought medical attention so that you have proof of your injury and the extent of it. You need to be able to prove that your injury was serious and that it had some impact on your life, either by causing pain and suffering or by causing a financial impact, such as a loss of earnings. This also applies to industrial diseases - you need to prove that your condition was caused by or exacerbated by your work and that you are suffering as a result of it. Medical records and reports will be essential in proving your case.

3. Evidence that the accident actually took place - You will need to prove in some way that the accident occurred. You, or your solicitor, will be expected to have gathered evidence like photos, witness statements, work logs, accident report, police reports etc. - anything that can prove that an accident happened and that your injury was caused by it. This is easy to do in the case of an accident at work or road traffic accident, but can be harder to prove in cases of medical negligence (where you need to prove that the doctor or health professional did something that no other competent doctor would have done) or a slip, trip or fall where there were no witnesses. This is where you really need expert legal advice to help you with your claim.

We are living in a compensation culture where people seem to be claiming personal injury for the slightest thing and so courts are becoming stricter. Only pursue a claim if you have a real case and have suffered in some way. Compensation is there to compensate you for your suffering and for things like lost earnings, lost future earnings and expenses you have incurred as a result of your injury, it is not meant to be like a lottery payment.