How Long Does a Personal Injury Claim Take? A Comprehensive Overview

STEP 1

Initial Instructions

The first step is a call with our expert solicitors to discuss your accident and assess your claim and the likelihood of a successful claim. If you decide to instruct our firm as your representative solicitors, you will receive a welcome pack and terms of business to be signed and returned to us before we can proceed with your claim.

You will be assigned a case handler who will communicate closely with you and ensure you are informed of any changes. During the process, you will be required to provide written instructions and will be sent appropriate mandate forms to be completed with simple tick boxes and a signature. These forms are a necessary step in the process to enable us to obtain full details of the accident to provide you with the best support and highest chances of a successful claim.

STEP 2

Letter of Claim

The initial step of the personal injury claim involves drafting a 'Letter of Claim', this will be sent to the Third Party (TP) by us. The letter will describe the accident, the injuries causes and reasons why we hold the TP accountable for this. Once received, the TP will pass this letter to their insurers, who will then have three months to investigate and provide their opinion on liability. 

STEP 3

Collating Evidence

Whilst we wait for the TP Insurers to investigate liability, we will continue to communicate with you collecting all the evidence you have to prove your claim. Evidence includes any photographs, witness statements, your personal statement, police reports, GP and or hospital records, accident book records etc.

In the meantime, we will continue to communicate with you and collect all the evidence you have to prove your claim such as any police reports, GP and/or Hospital records, accident book records, photographs, witness statements, your statement etc.

STEP 4

Admittance of Liability

If the Third Party admits that they are responsible for the accident, the next stage of the claim is to quantify the injuries to determine how much compensation you are entitled to as a result of your injuries.

STEP 5

Obtain Medical Evidence

We do this by arranging for you to be seen by a medical expert in your area who will write a medical report about your injuries and how these are affecting you. This often takes time as medical experts have very busy schedules and there may be waiting lists for appointments.

Once you have had your medical exam and we receive the report (it can take a little while for us to receive the medical report), we will share a copy with you to decide if you're happy and will ask you to sign a mandate form giving us permission to share this report with the TP's insurers. In doing this, it will help us to discuss with the TP insurers to negotiate settlement.

At this point, if you require physiotherapy or any further rehabilitation, this will be arranged for you and the costs will be recovered from the TP during the settlement agreement.

STEP 6

Schedule of Financial Losses

At this stage, we will prepare a schedule of your financial losses, this is a legal document will list all of the financial expenditure that has been lost as a result of the accident and injuries that occurred.

Financial losses can include the following:

• Loss of income
• Medication
• Travel expenses (to and from medical appointments)
• Rehabilitation and physiotherapy costs
• Care from family and friends
• Vehicle storage costs
• Damaged clothing

It is important that you have kept all receipts and evidence of these losses as these will be required to prove financial loss and claim the expenses back.

If you are struggling with on-going loss of earnings to due inability to work as a result of the injury, temporary payment from the TP is possible to help ease the strain of loss of earnings.

Once we have all of this information, you will receive a mandate form to sign with confirmation you're happy with the contents. This will be sent to the TP's insurers to help with the negotiation of your settlement. 

STEP 7

Negotiating Settlement

If liability has been accepted the TP's insurers will make offers to settle the claim, you will be made aware of this by the case handler. Using our expertise we will advise on whether the offer is reasonable or if you should negotiate for more compensation.

If the case handler has advised to reject the offer, if agreed by you, they will put forward a new offer to settle the agreement.

STEP 8

Denial of Liability

In the unfortunate and frustrating case that the TP denies responsibility for the accident, the next step would be to pursue the claim through the courts to fight for your deserved outcome.

Although the idea of court can sound daunting, our team of experts will handle this for you and talk you through the process to ease your mind.

STEP 9

Protective Proceedings

Some cases may require protective proceedings because the claim is nearing the Limitation date and liability has not yet accepted.

Claimants have 3 years (from the accident date) to make a claim, this is known as the Limitation period and a claim cannot be made after the Limitation date.

If you case is nearing the limitation date, we will file your claim to the courts to enable us to continue with the claim after the limitation date has been reached and enable you to still receive the deserved compensation.

STEP 10

Court Proceedings

When liability is denied and the case needs to proceed to court, we will file the claim in the Courts of Law. This is an essential step to ensure that we can progress with the case and hopefully negotiate a suitable settlement.

STEP 11

Going to Trial (if necessary)

In the event that your case goes to trial, you'll be required to attend a hearing or counsel meeting. Of course this is the last thing you want, however it is essential for us to fight for the outcome you deserve. Our expert personal injury solicitors are experienced at this and will be with you every step of the way making it as easy and stress-free as possible.

It's important to note that each case is entirely different and it doesn't mean that this happens every time a personal injury claim is made.

STEP 12

Settlement Negotiation

If your claim is successful and you are offered compensation we will discuss the offer with you and you can determine if you're happy to accept the amount proposed. If you do wish to accept the offer we will send you a mandate form to tick and sign for confirmation.

After this is returned, we will confirm with the TP that the offer is accepted and await their settlement cheque which will be processed through our accounts department who will then send your compensation directly to you. At this point you need to allow eight working days from the time of the compensation being sent to us to receive it in your bank.

STEP 13

Dealing with Failed Claims

Unfortunately, not all claims are successful. If the third party denies liability and the legal counsel advises low prospects of success at trial or your Legal Expense insurers withdraw coverage the case may be lost. Claims that go to trial can also still be lost.

The good news is that you are not responsible for any of our costs or disbursements if the claim fails due to the no win no fee personal injury policy. 

STEP 14

Client Feedback

We greatly appreciate all our clients who take the time to provide us with feedback at the end of their claims. This feedback enables us to enhance our reputation and helps other claimants in a similar situation to you understand where they can get the best legal support.