Personal injury advice from
Thompsons Solicitors
Compensation Claims
If you suffer a personal injury due to the negligence of someone else, for example as the result of an accident, or if you are suffering from an industrial disease, you may be entitled to make a compensation claim.
Our specialist personal injury lawyers have decades of experience in recovering compensation for the innocent victims of preventable injuries. For expert legal advice, contact us on 0800 0328511, or complete a claim enquiry form online.
Why Make a Compensation Claim?
When Can a Compensation Claim be Made?
Making a Compensation Claim
Compensation
Our Personal Injury Lawyers
Our Clients’ Successful Compensation Claims
Why Make a Compensation Claim?
An unexpected personal injury can create massive disruption in your life, in addition to the physical pain and distress of the injury itself. If you are injured in an accident or suffering from an industrial illness, you may for example be unable to work, drive or shop for food, or you may require help with personal care or childcare. This could be temporary or permanent.
Making a compensation claim can help to ease the financial burden that an injury can cause. Financial losses such as lost earnings, paying to replace damaged items, or the costs of medication, treatment and transport during your recovery can mount up and a compensation claim can reimburse these out of pocket expenses.
Although compensation claims cannot make you better or put right what happened, they can offer some recognition of the injury you sustained and many people take comfort in knowing that the negligent party has been called to account.
In some cases, a compensation claim brought by an injured person will also prompt steps to prevent the same thing from happening again. This could include stricter health and safety measures put into place by an employer after a workplace accident, repairs made to defective paving, or a change in hospital procedures when a compensation claim highlights failures in a patient’s treatment.
When Can a Compensation Claim be Made?
A compensation claim may be possible if your personal injury was caused by the negligent actions of another party, or their failure to take preventative action when they had a duty to do so. This may be another driver in a car accident or cycle accident, your employer if you have been injured at work, the manufacturer of a defective product, or the local authority responsible for a hazard in a public area.
Some accidents are simply that and could not be prevented or predicted. In these cases a compensation claim could not be made. Other accidents however could easily be avoided with reasonable safety measures. Such injuries often occur as the result of:
• Accidents at work
• Road accidents
• Accidents caused by faulty products
• Holiday accidents
• Accidents on public pavements
• Shop and supermarket accidents
• Accidents at school
• Accidents caused by dangerous accommodation
Your injury may not happen in an accident however. Industrial diseases are another example of how physical harm can be caused by negligence. Employers have a duty to protect their employees from exposure to hazardous conditions or hazardous substances whilst at work. Failure to do this can result in the development of certain conditions. Some of the more common industrial illnesses include:
• Occupational asthma
• Asbestos-related diseases (mesothelioma, asbestosis, pleural thickening)
• Noise induced hearing loss
• Vibration white finger / hand arm vibration syndrome
• Occupational dermatitis
Medical negligence can also result in a patient suffering an injury or health problem unnecessarily, through surgical errors, prescription errors, misdiagnosis and other medical mistakes.
Our lawyers specialise in all areas of personal injury and we can provide you with expert advice on your potential case and whether a compensation claim is possible.
Making a Compensation Claim
In any personal injury claim it is necessary to show that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care, and that the injury you sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence.
In every case, medical evidence will be required. Detailed expert evidence is often also required in disease cases to show that the condition suffered by a claimant was caused by exposure to a particular substance.
If you suffer a personal injury, it is advisable to note down as much information as you can, such as the date and time of the incident, details of any witnesses and an account of how it occurred. This will be helpful if you decide to make a personal injury claim.
You should seek prompt medical attention to ensure that you receive the treatment you need and also to determine the nature of your injury.
The next step is to obtain specialist advice from a qualified, expert, personal injury lawyer, such as The Legal Line’s lawyers. They will collate all the necessary information, advise on how best to pursue your case, and deal with the matter on your behalf, keeping you updated at regular intervals.
Compensation
There are two elements to a compensation award:
General Damages: an award of general damages is made in respect of the pain and suffering you have gone through and any loss of amenity (an inability to do things that you could do before, such as wash your car, look after your garden or walk the dog). The award for loss of amenity can be for a short period after an injury occurs or for ever if that is what the medical evidence supports.
Special Damages: The second element of a compensation award, for your losses and expenses, is known as special damages and this aims to put you back in a position financially as if the accident or illness had never occurred.
It is therefore important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to the accident so that these can be reclaimed. This may include expenses for medical treatment, transport costs and the cost of replacing damaged items of personal property.
In serious injury cases, where a person may have to alter their lifestyle or home as a result of their injuries, this can be taken into account. Costs for care, equipment, transport and housing modifications can also be factored into the calculations.
If a person is fatally injured, a dependent relative such as a widow and children may be able to claim a statutory sum for their bereavement and funeral expenses, but also sums for the loss of income and contribution to the household in the form of future losses.
Our Personal Injury Lawyers
The Legal Line’s lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors, have been assisting the innocent victims of accidents and industrial diseases caused by negligence for over 90 years. They have a network of offices throughout the UK and have fought and won many high profile test cases, helping to shape the law on important issues such as asbestos compensation.
Our lawyers have an excellent record for securing high levels of damages for their clients. They are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and several members of the nationwide team belong to the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Panel.
They are also members of the brain injury association Headway, the Spinal Injuries Association and the AvMA Referral Panel.
Our Clients’ Successful Compensation Claims
For details of some of the many compensation claims we have handled on behalf of our clients, visit our personal injury news and success stories sections or follow the links below:
Cyclist Knocked off Bike on Roundabout Receives Injury Compensation
Burn Injury Compensation for Forklift Truck Driver Injured at Work
Groundskeeper Receives Compensation for Vibration White Finger
Police Employee Compensated for Needlestick Injury at Work
Pothole on Pavement Causes Personal Injury
Widow of Mesothelioma Victim Receives Compensation
Whiplash Injury Claim for Bus Passenger
Fitter Suffers Spinal Injury in Fall From Height
Employer Pays Compensation to Family of Pleural Thickening Victim
Clinical Negligence Claim for Man Injured by Surgical Error
Claim Made Against Waste Company for Fatal Accident
Employee’s Thumb Amputated by Drill in Accident at Work
Group Claim for Employees With Work-Related Respiratory Illness
MoD Employee Compensated for Accident-Related Tinnitus
Mother Compensated for Birth Injury Caused by Clinical Negligence
Compensation for Passenger Injured in Multi-Vehicle Road Accident
Successful
Claim for Child’s Injury at Nursery
Road Worker
Injured by Driver Receives Personal Injury Compensation
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Testimonials
"It wasn't realistic for me to work any more and the loss of my income placed an additional strain on us."
Jane Evans
Mother of Rebecca
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