Please Note:

This accident at work site has been devised to provide mere guidance on various personal injury topics. It is always recommended to seek professional legal advice from an experienced solicitor.

This posting will provide some insights into the process in which a workplace accident claim will follow once a personal injury victim has decided that they would like to go ahead and claim for compensation from their employer. Once this decision has been made, the important step will be to track down an experienced legal team that will usually take the case on a no win, no fee basis. It can be difficult to track down a highly reputable solicitor, as there are many to choose between and you may only be familiar with one or two of them that may have appeared before now on TV commercials (although some of these are merely introducers). There are various steps that can be taken in finding a valued solicitor (How to Find a Solicitor).

(This has been written in the manner that you are the claimant, of course due to the severity it may be a family member following this process)

1) You find a solicitor and contact them either by the phone or by contacting them through their website. You would either speak to them on the phone there and then, or you will be fully contacted within a few days. This should be free legal advice and you will at no time be under any obligation to use them.

2) An assessment will be carried out and you will learn whether a claim for compensation can be made. If you choose to use them after the consultation, then you would typically be advised to maintain a daily injury diary.

3) You should receive an accident claim questionaire that will need to be checked over and signed.

4) Your solicitor will write a letter to your employer where the claim is being made. This “Letter of Claim” informs them of your claim that was based as a result of their negligence.

5) The solicitor would have collected all the evidence required to support the accident claim. This would include photographs of the accident scene and injuries. Further evidence collected would perhaps include police reports, witness reports, Xrays and so on.

6) All of the above points would usually happen quickly, but there would then be some distance to the time that you would see a medical expert. With serious injury claims, this examination will be very important to study ongoing problems and the recovery stage. This will help to support the compensation claim and this examination would generally take place in months, rather than weeks so that we can establish a clearer picture of how the injury is effecting you over time.

7) The solicitor receives the medical report and compiles a list of everything that will be claimed for named a “Schedule of Losses”.

8) Communcation between your solicitor and your employer will then answer whether your claim has been either accepted or disputed. If accepted, the solicitor will negotiate the compensation amount and when settled… you will be paid! If the claim is disputed then the case will go to court. If the case is won then the compensation is paid, if lost then nothing is paid.

Notes:
- Most personal injury claims are settled without the need to go to court. Any serious personal injury claims will likely go to court though and there are varied levels here, whereby the highest value claims would go to the High Court.

- The accident in most cases must have taken place in the past three years. The exceptions that I have studied includes for children under 18, for claimants suffering from mental disability and also in cases whereby symptoms take longer to develop such as with asbestosis. This will be covered in detail at a later date.

- The intention would be to use a no win, no fee solicitor. This agreement is known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). If compensation is paid then you should receive 100% of it. The solicitor is paid for fees and expenses via the employer’s insurers; they may also be paid a “success fee” by their insurers. If the case is lost then you and your solicitor will not be paid any money. I have read of instances whereby your solicitors expenses may need to be paid by you (such as for the medical report) if you lose. Also noted is the possibility of paying employer’s legal costs. All of this can be covered by taking out after-the-event insurance (ATE insurance); the premium for this should be covered by your solicitor. Do note that solicitors would only usually take on cases with a likely high success rate based on their experiences.