Conditional fee agreement

A conditional fee agreement means that your solicitor will receive no fees if you lose your case. You may, however, have to pay the legal fees and expenses of the other side. Your solicitor will normally ask you to take out insurance to cover this situation. If you win your case, your solicitor's fees and expenses will normally be paid by the other side.

For more information about conditional fee agreements, see Using a solicitor.

If you are considering taking legal action and you have not yet been to a solicitor you may want to seek advice about possible sources of help with legal costs from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB

Paying for legal action

Legal action for compensation for a personal injury can be expensive. You may be able to get help with legal costs from, for example:-

• a solicitor or organisation providing legal aid
• For more information about legal aid, see Help with legal costs.
• a conditional fee agreement (see below)
• a trade union or other membership organisation such as the AA or RAC
• an insurance policy. Many house contents policies, car insurance or travel insurance policies have legal expenses cover attached.

Taking legal action

If you want to take legal action to claim compensation for a personal injury you will need to get advice from a solicitor specialising in these types of cases. This must be done as soon as possible as there are strict time limits on taking legal action (see below).

Time limits

There are different time limits within which you must begin legal action in a personal injury claim. You should therefore get legal advice urgently if you wish to claim compensation.

The most common claim in a personal injury case is negligence and the time limit for this is three years. This means that court proceedings must be issued within three years of you first being aware that you have suffered an injury.

In some cases, a court may decide to extend a time limit, depending on the circumstances of the case.

If you are considering taking legal action and have not yet been to a solicitor you will need to be aware of the time limits for taking action and should seek help from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB

Claims assessors

If you have sustained a personal injury you may be considering using the services of a claims assessor (sometimes known as a claims manager). Claims assessors offer to take up cases on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis but there may be some disadvantages, including:-

• a claims assessor will not usually be a solicitor and may not have a solicitor taking responsibility for the case. If this is so, the assessor will not be able to claim compensation through the courts and if you have suffered the injury you may receive less compensation
• the claims assessor may ask you to pay a percentage of whatever compensation you receive to the assessor. You should be aware that while paying 50% of £1,000 damages may be acceptable to you, paying 50% of £10,000 may not.

All claims assessors must be authorised by the government to carry out business. They must stick to a strict set of rules which cover how they advertise, take on business, deal with and represent clients.

If you aren't happy with the service you get from a claims assessor, you can make a complaint. They must have an internal complaints procedure which they must tell you about.

Before you use a claims assessor, you should check that they are authorised. You can report a claims assessor who isn't authorised to the Claims Management Regulation Monitoring and Compliance Unit by phone on: 0845 450 6858, or by email at: info@claimsregulation.gov.uk.

To find out more about the rules covering claims assessors and to check whether a claims assessor is authorised, go to www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/consumer.

If you are considering using a claims assessor you should first seek advice from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB

Deduction of social security benefits from compensation

If you have been receiving certain social security benefits because of an accident in which you sustained a personal injury, you may have to pay these back out of any compensation you get.

The rules about deduction from benefits are complex and if you think you may be affected you should seek specialist advice from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click onnearest CAB

Amount of compensation

If you have sustained a personal injury you may be able to claim two types of compensation, general damages and special damages.

General damages are paid as compensation for an injury, for example, a payment for pain and suffering or loss of future earnings. The court will decide on the amount to be paid.

Special damages are paid as compensation for actual financial loss caused by the accident up to the date of the hearing. These can include damage to clothing or other belongings, the costs of care, travel costs to hospital, medical expenses (including the cost of private treatment) and the cost of hiring and/or repairing a car if it has been damaged in the accident.

If a court decides that you were partly to blame for the accident, it may reduce the amount of damages you receive. An example of this would be if you were not wearing a seat belt when you were involved in a traffic accident.

In England and Wales, for more information about claiming compensation for personal injury, see Claiming compensation for personal injury – no win, no fee agreements in Legal fact sheets.

Compensation

There are several ways of getting compensation for a personal injury:

• using a claims assessor (see under heading Claims assessors)
• taking legal action in a civil court (see under heading Taking legal action)
• making a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (see under heading Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority) (Criminal Injuries Compensation Agency in Northern Ireland)
• through a criminal compensation order (see under heading Criminal compensation orders)
• special Government compensation schemes for some injuries and losses such as vaccine damage or asbestos-related disease – see under heading Special compensation schemes
• in Wales, using the NHS Redress Arrangements.

Making a complaint

If you have had an accident or suffered an injury you might be able to get an explanation of what went wrong and to receive an apology. In some cases, there may be an official complaints procedure you can use.

One disadvantage of using complaints procedures is that they are often time consuming and the final result will be no more than an apology. If you have suffered a personal injury and you also want compensation, you should be aware that there are time limits for taking legal action (see under heading Taking legal action) and going through a complaints procedure may delay matters.

If you decide that making a complaint will provide a sufficient remedy, here are some examples of the organisations you can complain to:

• a government department
• a local authority
• your employer
• the police
• your school or other educational institution
• your hospital or other National Health Service institution
• In Wales, new NHS Redress Arrangements which start from 1 April 2011, may allow you to combine making a complaint with claiming compensation.

If you want more information about how to complain to these types of organisations, you should seek specialist advice from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB

Accidents at work

If the accident happened at work, it should be recorded in an accident book. If your workplace does not have an accident book, you should write out brief details of the accident and injuries, send them to your employer and keep a copy. Your contract may say that you have to report an injury at work to your employer. If you are self-employed, you have a legal responsibility to report some accidents resulting in injury to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or to the local authority environmental health department. In England and Wales, there is more information about reporting accidents to the HSE on its website at www.hse.gov.uk

Making a complaint

If you have had an accident or suffered an injury you might be able to get an explanation of what went wrong and to receive an apology. In some cases, there may be an official complaints procedure you can use.

One disadvantage of using complaints procedures is that they are often time consuming and the final result will be no more than an apology. If you have suffered a personal injury and you also want compensation, you should be aware that there are time limits for taking legal action (see under heading Taking legal action) and going through a complaints procedure may delay matters.

If you decide that making a complaint will provide a sufficient remedy, here are some examples of the organisations you can complain to:

• a government department
• a local authority
• your employer
• the police
• your school or other educational institution
• your hospital or other National Health Service institution
• In Wales, new NHS Redress Arrangements which start from 1 April 2011, may allow you to combine making a complaint with claiming compensation.

If you want more information about how to complain to these types of organisations, you should seek specialist advice from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB

What is a personal injury

A personal injury can be:

• a physical injury, disease or illness, or
• a psychological injury or illness.

A personal injury could result in death.

Examples of personal injuries are:

• an injury at work. This includes work-related illnesses such as a disease caused by working with asbestos
• a psychological illness caused by stress at work
• an injury caused in a traffic accident
• an injury received as a result of faulty goods or services
• an injury caused if you trip over paving stones
• a psychological illness suffered as a result of abuse as a child
• an injury caused by errors in hospital treatment or by vaccinations
• a physical or psychological injury sustained by a victim in the course of a crime
• a psychological illness caused by discrimination or harassment in your work-place.

If you have suffered a personal injury, or if you are acting on behalf of someone who has died because of a personal injury, you may want to consider the following:

• do you want to make a complaint to the person or organisation you believe was responsible for the injuries (see under heading Making a complaint)
• do you want to make a claim for compensation to cover losses you have suffered as a result of the injury (see under heading Compensation)
• are there any immediate financial problems arising because of the injury, for example, you are unable to work (see under heading Financial problems)
• do you want to contact an organisation that could offer support or counselling (see under heading Support and counselling).

• Assess your eligibility for compensation and duly appoint an expert solicitor where appropriate.
• Arrange an independent medical report to see how well you are recovering.
• Assess whether you need any more medical help – and, if needed, arrange it immediately.
• Advise you, whenever possible, of how long your claim will take and how much compensation you might receive.
• Make you aware of ‘after-the-event insurance’ to help you cover your opponent’s costs should you lose your case.
• Let our solicitor negotiate compensation on your behalf – regularly updating you about the progress of your claim.

The final stage of the process is when you receive a cheque compensating you for your injuries – more than 95% of cases are settled before going to court.

How to make a No Win, No Fee compensation claim

The process of starting work on your claim begins as soon as you make contact. 

Most of Claims Direct’s work is conducted by phone and email, meaning that you rarely have to take time-consuming trips to a lawyer’s office. Our No Win, No Fee solicitors will complete most of the paperwork for you, though we do ask you to check and sign claim forms once we have filled out the boxes on your behalf.

When you contact us, we will need to know:

• Your personal details, including contact details so that we can keep you fully informed about the progress of your claim
• The date your accident occurred / the date when you first showed symptoms of an illness
• The location of the accident and a brief account of what happened
• Any GP or hospital notes relating to the injuries you sustained
• Details of police reports relating to the accident
• Relevant details about the person or organisation you believe was responsible for your accident (name, address, insurance company)

Personal injury solicitors London, there are many personal injury solicitors in London. But be careful, you must go with a company that has lots of experience! If your personal injury solicitor in London do not deal with a huge number of clients like the commercial solicitors do, then you may not be optimising your full monetary reward. A small company may not know how far they can push the insurance companies for an out of court settlement. If the smaller London personal injury solicitor pushes too hard it may end up in court and you could end up with nothing!