Accident Compensation Claims

Immediately after an accident, your priority is likely to be on your own well being and that of any friends of family members if they too were involved in the accident. You might not be feeling up to making an accident compensation claim at this time, but it might be beneficial to any claim you do wish to make if you contact an accident claims solicitor as soon as possible after your accident.

At Camps Solicitors we understand that in the days and weeks after your accident, you might find the prospect of making an accident compensation claim quite daunting. This is precisely why as part of our accident compensation claims process we will arrange for one of our representatives to come out to visit you in person to provide reassurance and to explain the claims process to you. We provide this service to all of our clients who have suffered injuries for which they were not to blame.

Your home visit will typically take between 45 minutes and an hour and a half, but it may take slightly longer in cases involving significant injuries, or where there are lots of details to be recorded. Our representative will ask you about the circumstances that led up to your accident as well as how you are coping after your accident and whether your injuries are affecting your ability to return to work or to lead a normal life. You can find out more on our dedicated accident compensation claim home visit page.

To support any successful accident compensation claim, you will need solid evidence. One of the key pieces of evidence to back up a claim will be the medical evidence confirming the injuries you have suffered in your accident. This medical evidence in an accident compensation claim not only establishes that the accident victim has suffered the injuries that they claim, but it also informs the decision of a judge or insurance company when they are deciding the monetary value of any accident compensation.

As part of our accident compensation claims service we arrange private medical appointments for all of our injured clients. Accurate medical evidence is an important part of any accident compensation claim. Clients with minor and moderate injuries will be sent to see a doctor at a consultation site as close as possible to their home or place of work, but we may make arrangements for our more seriously injured clients to see consultants or other specialists with experience in the treatment and management of those particular injuries.

We aim to work around your existing commitments when arranging medical appointments as part of your accident compensation claim. In the weeks and months immediately after any accident, you might well have your hands full, which is why our legal teams will arrange any medical appointments for times when you are available and able to attend.

As with medical evidence of your injuries, the chances of making a successful accident compensation claim are increased if there are independent witnesses to confirm your version of events. This can apply to all accident types, such as road accidents where there may be a dispute about which driver was responsible or in workplace accidents where an employer might contest your version of events leading up to the accident.

In the immediate aftermath of any accident it’s unlikely you will be thinking about getting the details of any potential witnesses who might have seen what happened. After all, if you have been injured your priority should be to seek medical attention immediately. Sometimes it will happen that you are approached by witnesses immediately after the accident who may offer their details as witnesses to your accident.

We would advise you to attempt to take as many details as possible from any potential witnesses to your accident. This will make the job of contacting these witnesses later on in your claim much easier. Your accident compensation claim solicitor will contact any accident witnesses you have identified on your behalf. The testimony of a witness who is unconnected to you (i.e. not a family member or friend) will add a lot of weight should your accident compensation claim go all the way to a court hearing.

Witness and medical evidence is important for any accident compensation claim and so is a record of your own experiences during your recovery from your injuries. At Camps Solicitors we encourage all of our injuries clients to maintain a record of how they are coping with their injuries in the days, weeks and months after their accidents. This record is often referred to as a ‘pain diary’.

These diaries are not only kept by people who are making accident compensation claims, they are commonly used by doctors who are treating patients with long-term or chronic illnesses as they provide an invaluable resource to record the patient’s experiences in between any scheduled medical appointments. In accident compensation claims, a pain diary will form part of the evidence submitted by your solicitor to a court or to the other side’s insurance company.

Your records of your experiences after your accident may be relied on when a judge or insurance company representative is calculating the level of compensation to be paid. For example, your diary might reveal that you are having difficulties with certain activities around the home. If this is the case then any compensation settlement that is reached may include some financial provision to allow you to have a home help or to reflect the care and assistance provided to you by other members of your family.