How To Make A Car Accident Compensation Claim

Being involved in a car accident is a horrific experience, though unfortunately it is one that many of us will go through during the course of our lives. It’s fair to say however that the first thing we think about after such an event isn’t likely to involve how to go about claiming car accident compensation for it.

Contacting a personal injury solicitor for legal assistance can be daunting at any stage, and the thought of it never gets any easier. Luckily, the majority of solicitors firms are very friendly, down-to-earth and are waiting to help you at any time of the day or night.

Car accidents can be a huge burden financially, what with sorting out the damage to your car, medical costs and sudden expense in having to seek alternative forms of transport. When the loss to you has been great, it is usually a good time to consider seeking car accident compensation.

The following four steps include what to do immediately after your car accident:

- Check that everyone in the vehicle is ok and see if you can determine what injuries, if any, you/your passengers have.
- Call the relevant emergency services, i.e. the police and ambulance.
- Take the details of any other driver/vehicle involved, including their names, addresses and insurance policy information.
- Take a note of where the accident happened, and of how you saw it happen. Taking pictures may be beneficial here.

Once you have done this, the next step would be to get in contact with expert personal injury lawyers, who will be best qualified to take you through the process of making a claim for car accident compensation.

Being in a car accident can damage confidence and may lead to longer-term psychological or physical problems. It can also cause death or disability which is bound to have an effect on the lives of many people. Although car accident compensation cannot make up for such injuries, it can certainly help to put you back on the path to leading a higher quality of life in the future.

How To Make A Car Accident Compensation Claim

No Win No Fee Claims – The Accidents You Can Claim For

If you have been injured in an accident, it’s likely that you will be able to make an injury compensation claim. This is to help you recover any money you may lose by taking time off work, as well as for the inconvenience of your painful injuries.

However, with many phony claims management companies out there, it is important that you use an experienced personal injury solicitor to make sure you have an expert representing you.

Many of the firms who say they can get you ‘no win no fee’ compensation actually have hidden fees and charges which you don’t find out about until your case has been completed. The following list looks at some of claims where a proper solicitors firm will carry out the work for you on a no win no fee basis.

1) Car Accident Claims. Having a car accident is never pleasant and they can result in terrible injuries to the driver or passenger. Fortunately, you won’t be charged before or at the end of your claim, if you wish to make one if the accident was not your fault.

2) Motorbike Accident Claims. As above, having an accident on a motorbike can be even more horrific than car accidents. 20% of serious road accidents involve motorbikes, which is astonishingly high considering only 1% of traffic consists of this two-wheeled variety.

3) Work Accidents. Your employer has to protect you from suffering an injury on their premises. If they have not done this you will be entitled to make a no win no fee compensation claim against them, which will help make up for your lost salary if you need to take time off.

4) Slips and Trips. If you trip on a damaged pavement, or slip on a wet shop floor, you can almost always claim compensation against whoever was responsible for your accident, whether that be a council, shop owner or someone else. Slip or trip claims can be made on a no win no fee basis with the correct legal guidance.

No Win No Fee Claims – The Accidents You Can Claim For

Claims Advice - What Does No Win No Fee Actually Mean?

It’s fair to say that the term ‘no win no fee’ is a confusing one for many. As the compensation claim industry becomes increasingly vast, with many companies offering to help you recover money for your injuries, it’s often difficult to know where to turn next if you’re looking for professional legal assistance.

A number of firms offer their clients a no win no fee service. Unfortunately, not all of these are really honest about the processes involved, meaning some get hit by hidden charges after being awarded the compensation that they need to help make a difference to their lives.

No win no fee is known in the legal industry as a ‘conditional fee agreement’. These were introduced in the late 90’s, and used more commonly from the early 2000’s, after the government decided to scrap the legal aid system for personal injury victims.

Although no win no fee lawyers have come under criticism by many, there are a number of genuine firms who are dedicated to helping people through the process of making a compensation claim when they have been injured unfairly.

These firms will also be the ones who let you use their services completely free of charge, meaning you pay absolutely nothing up front, or lose anything from your final compensation settlement.

They are able to do this by charging the losing side their legal costs, which is only fair considering they will be the ones that caused your accident and subsequent injuries in the first place.

Even if the event that your claim is not successful, your solicitor will not charge you any costs as they will be covered by an insurance policy known as After the Event (ATE) insurance, that they take are required to take out prior to the commencement of any legal proceeding.

In short, if the case is covered by no win no fee and it ends up in a loss, your solicitor is not entitled to claim a legal fee against either party.

Claims Advice - What Does No Win No Fee Actually Mean?

Five Good Things About No Win No Fee Claims

Introduced in the late 1990’s as a replacement for government legal aid, no win no fee claims, otherwise known as conditional fee agreements (CFA’s), have helped thousands of people get hold of compensation following an accident that wasn’t their fault.

CFA’s mean that the claimant does not need to pay a penny to hire a solicitor to look at their case, even in the event that they end up losing. The agreement is signed before the commencement of a case; which keeps things in the open between a lawyer and the client.

However, as of late the system has been the subject of much scrutiny, meaning that a shake- up of the way compensation cases are looked at is certainly on the new government’s agenda.

The following list considers the five best things about no win no fee claims:

1) No upfront coast to access justice.

Before no win no fee agreements, many regular people would never have been able to consider legal assistance if they had been injured due to the cost of talking to a lawyer. When they were introduced, everyday workers, drivers, hospital patients are more could talk to a legal expert if they had been injured through no fault of their own.

2) No paying a solicitor’s fee.

In the vast majority of cases, injury victims do not to pay a fee to their solicitor, whether they win or lose. If they win, their solicitor recovers their cost from the losing side, whilst if you lose, they will have insurance in place to make sure they do not lose out.

3) Full amount of compensation.

Because you don’t have to pay your solicitor out of your compensation, you will receive the full amount that has been awarded to you. This is the case whether your claim has gone through the court, or has been settled outside by mutual agreement with the other party.

4) Maximum payout.

By ensuring you have an experienced personal injury solicitor fighting your claim for you, you greatly improve your chances of receiving the maximum compensation payout available to you.

5) You’re likely to win if your case is taken on.

Injury lawyers usually only take on cases they know have a good chance of succeeding. Therefore, if your claim has been accepted by a legal expert, it’s usually quite likely that you will end up receiving a payout.

Five Good Things About No Win No Fee Claims

Highest claim ever made

The highest ever compensation payable in the UK is thought to have been awarded to Wasim Mohammed. He was awarded compensation on a no win no fee basis with the help of personal injury lawyers.

Mr Mohammed, a 22 year old from the West Midlands, was awarded compensation of £11.15 million in a personal injury claim. He was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a horrendous collision when the driver, who was exceeding the speed limit, tried overtaking a vehicle at a junction. This manoeuvre resulted in the vehicle slamming into another car that was turning right.

The horrific accident resulted in Mr Mohammed’s neck being broken and injuries to his spinal cord with little or no movement in his arms and legs leaving him basically paralysed with no chance of a cure.

The driver was convicted of careless driving and the huge sum of money that Mr Mohammed received for his catastrophic injuries indicates the amount that will be needed to compensate him for the remainder of his life. He requires the services of two full time carers to tend to his needs. The sum is broken down into a lump sum payment of £4.25 million plus yearly payments of £235,000.

This enormous sum reflects the high cost of care that he will require, pain and suffering he will endure together with loss of earnings and money to build a property near his parents’ house so that they are accessible. Mr Mohammed’s culture states that the eldest son must stay at home with his parents to look after them in their old age. The compromise is the building of a property near them as he is unfit to care for them.

No win no fee solicitors can deal with your compensation claim in a professional, efficient manner.

Highest claim ever made

Children’s accidents

Children by their very nature are inclined to be accident prone, but sometimes accidents are someone else’s fault. If your child has been injured it may be worth making a compensation claim through personal injury lawyers on a no win no fee basis.

Witnessing an accident involving your own or any child is very traumatic. The incident will also be very distressing for the child and can have long term ramifications.

One of the most common setting for children’s accidents is at school, whether in the actual school building, in the playground, sports ground or on school trips such as visiting museums.

Just like employers, schools are under a statutory duty to provide safe premises for children. Some of the time, accidents happen on the sports ground because a goal post is loose and collapses on the child or where tiles around the swimming pool are wet and slippery after cleaning.

The furniture provided in the classroom must be safe so that if a desk leg is loose and falls on the child then that accident may well give rise to a compensation claim.

Children can also be injured as passengers whilst travelling in a bus, taxi or car which crashes due to the driver’s negligence.

Children may slip on a supermarket floor where a warning sign has not been displayed or may be knocked over on a pavement by a reckless cyclist.

A personal injury claim will involve a compensation claim for the child’s physical injuries and possibly psychological injury too. Additionally a claim may be made for loss of earnings if the child’s parents or guardians take time off work to care for him; travel expenses incurred in seeking medical attention and the child’s damaged clothes.

Contact no win no fee solicitors to claim compensation rightfully due for your child’s injuries.

Children’s accidents

Online scams - How to avoid them?

Online scams are increasingly sophisticated as scammers think up ever devious and plausible ways of coaxing you into parting with your money. No win no fee solicitors may be your best choice if you have been scammed and are seeking compensation.

A huge proportion of purchases happen via the internet as more goods are available worldwide 24 hours a day.

Buying goods online involves you having to make a judgement and placing your trust in the retailer. If you are purchasing from a new web site, make sure that you read the small print. Make sure the company exists, so try phoning the number usually listed on the contact page.

Do not respond to any request from an online retailer to divulge your bank or credit card details in an email. It is worth remembering that any company which asks you for such details is likely to be disreputable whereas a legitimate company would not do this.

Beware of ordering goods as a result of unsolicited emails. At the very least you should check out the website which can often be gleaned from the wording. An unsolicited email from abc@1234.co.uk should prompt you to look up 1234.co.uk via a search engine so that you can obtain more information on the company.

Once you have the company name it is prudent to carry out a free search at http://www.companieshouse.co.uk which will show how many times the company has changed its name and when it began trading.

Avoid companies which have changed their name numerous times as they may be experiencing financial difficulties and trying to avoid being made insolvent. They may not reliable entities and you should not do business with such companies is you have any doubts.

If you are involved in an online scam, personal injury lawyers can advise on your compensation claim on a no win no fee basis.

Online scams - How to avoid them?

5 Strangest claims

Some of the weirder compensation claims have taken place outside of the UK. In particular the United States is known for its unusual lawsuits.

Most of the cases are issued by no win no fee solicitors or attorneys and some are listed below.

One notorious case in the United States concerns an obese boy who issued a lawsuit against a fast food chain because the restaurant hadn't warned him that eating huge numbers of burgers was detrimental to his health.

A man put his camper van on cruise control at 70 mph and made himself a cup of coffee whereby the vehicle left the road. He sued the manufacturers of the van who had failed to tell him that the vehicle wouldn't self steer around bends on cruise control.

A woman slipped in dog urine on a kitchen floor and sustained an ankle injury. The strange part is that she sued the owner of the house who was a good personal friend maintaining that he should have cleared up the dog’s mess.

An American gentleman was eating some salted peanuts when he chewed on a brittle foreign object. The object was in fact a tooth from an unidentified animal. He was disgusted and understandably made a personal injury compensation claim against the manufacturers of the peanuts stating that the sight of the animal tooth made him extremely ill and caused him mental anguish.

One of the weirder claims in the UK involved a woman who won a radio quiz where the prize was a Renault Clio. However the prize turned out to be a small model replica of the car and she succeeded in her claim against the radio station receiving compensation of £8000 to purchase the real vehicle.

If you think you have a compensation claim, contact personal injury lawyers on a no win no fee basis.

5 Strangest claims