Part of my blog will be about personal injury law, and advice for those that might need it. Being a retired lawyer I know only too well how personal injuries can sometimes have a huge effect on a person’s life and their ability to maintain the quality of life that they were used to before the accident happened. Whilst some people are able to cope after a personal injury, other people may be faced by extreme hardship. It is often the most vulnerable people who are hit hardest by a personal injury.
Should you need support and/or advice on personal injury please read the remainder of this post.
Turn to your support network
In the first instance, injured people may try to turn to their personal support network to see how they can be of assistance. That being said, if a person is injured in an accident that was not their fault, they should not be forced to rely solely on their friends and family members. Friends and family members can provide useful support in the immediate aftermath of an incident as they try to help to organise further support from outside of the personal network. People who are injured in an accident that they are not liable for should be entitled to access all of the support that they need to aid their recovery.
Citizens Advice Bureau
Anyone who is struggling to access support or anyone who is having financial difficulties as a result of a personal injury that they sustained is recommended to visit their local Citizen’s Advice Bureau.
The team at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau are trained to understand a wide range of laws, rules and available support to help citizens to overcome their problems. Support is also available for people who are suffering from hardship because a personal injury has affected someone in their immediate family. If a person is suffering from severe financial worries, including problems with debt or issues with claiming the appropriate financial benefits that they are entitled to after an accident, the team at the Citizens Advice Bureau may suggest a specialist money advisor.
Help and Support Groups
There is a wide range of different help and support groups available in the United Kingdom for people who have suffered a personal injury that was not their fault. Many of these support groups will specialise in one particular field or other. Specialist fields include; groups for victims of violent crimes, groups for those who have suffered an injury due to medical malpractice, groups for people who were injured in the workplace, and groups for people injured in road traffic accidents. These groups normally offer direct and indirect support to accident victims. They also work to improve legislation so that other people are less likely to encounter the same problems again in the future.
Making a Claim for Compensation
Making a claim for compensation can help vulnerable people to ensure that they are able to support themselves. The compensation should also help to cover any financial losses which that person has experienced because of the personal injury that they received. Although it is possible for a person to make a claim on their own, it is much easier to do so with the support of a claims assessor or legal professional.
A claims assessor will listen to the full story about what caused the personal injury and they will then try to ascertain who is liable for the injuries. They may need to ask personal questions and obtain personal medical information to help them to do this. They will also use this information to help them to establish how much the claim may be worth. Once they have ascertained fault and established a potential claims value, they can then launch the claim by advising the defendant’s insurance company of their intentions.
In many cases, the defendant’s insurance company will agree completely with the claim for compensation. They will offer the requested amount of compensation or make a close counteroffer. A claims advisor will be able to offer strong advice about whether to accept the counteroffer or whether to continue to fight for a higher claim. In some cases, the claim may end up going to court. Although most people try to avoid a court battle for compensation, so people are pleased to have the opportunity to explain their claim in front of a judge. Cases which go to court can even help to change legislation. However, claimants can lose court cases and may end up with no compensation.