Personal Injury

The amount of compensation you receive will vary depending on the severity of the injury you have endured. After being examined by a medical professional, we can determine the likely impact that the injuries will have on your life, allowing us to provide a suitable valuation for compensation.

There are many factors that can influence this valuation, including:

• Your ability to continue to work
• Long-term effects of your injury
• The costs of medical and therapy care
• Damage to property
• Support systems for your home
• Adapted transport

To find out more information, please read our latest blog post on what is the average payout for a personal injury claim in the UK?

In the majority of cases, the time limit for making a personal injury claim is three years from the date of the injury; however, it can also be three years from the date you knew you were injured or unwell as a result of negligence.

It is important to speak to a personal injury solicitor as soon as you realise your injury was caused by negligence.

If you are involved in an accident and suffered an injury, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible. Some serious injuries can take time to appear, and if you fail to get the right help, they could worsen and cause you serious health issues.

If you suffered your injury in the workplace, you should record the accident circumstances and injuries sustained in your workplace’s accident log book.

Once you have sought medical attention and you are able, you should call our personal injury lawyers to find out whether you can claim money to cover your suffering and any financial losses you are expecting to incur.

The best way to document your injuries and the accident that caused them is to take photos and videos of the accident scene and any injuries that you have incurred. Before doing so, you should make sure you are safe. If you are unable to take any photos or videos, you should ask someone else to do it for you.

Following this, you should seek help from a medical professional who will be able to diagnose you and make an entry within your medical records outlining your injuries and their likely causes.

If you suffer financial losses, you should retain receipts of purchased items/travel and make a record of your losses. Pay slips and bank statements will detail your usual income in contrast to what you earned following your accident.

These can all serve as great sources of evidence to support your claim for compensation and identify and place the blame on the responsible party.

It is difficult to provide an estimate for the amount of time that a personal injury claim will take, as this will be dependent on the specifics of your case, including the nature of the accident and the severity of your injury. If you have lots of evidence and a strong case against the other party, your claim is likely to take less time. However, if you have less evidence, it may be more difficult to prove your case and therefore take longer.

The first step to take in any personal injury claim is to contact us. When you do, we will discuss your situation over the phone to understand whether we can help you, and explain to you the best next steps to take.

If you decide to make a compensation claim with us, we will consult with you again to understand every aspect of your situation and formulate a plan for confronting the other party with your personal injury settlement. To do so successfully, we will need to identify and gather information that supports your claim. This may be in the form of medical reports, financial reports, work logs, accident logs, witness statements or photos and video. Our team can work with you to secure this evidence and go as far as facilitating professionals who will be able to assess your situation and provide expert opinion.

When we are confident that we have a strong case to bring against the responsible party, we will contact them to inform them that you are taking legal action and that they will need to either accept or dispute the allegations. We will handle all of the necessary communications on your behalf and, if the case goes smoothly, you may not even have to speak to anyone else.

If the other party accepts responsibility and agrees to pay the compensation, we will work with them and their insurer (if they have one) to work out an amount that we believe will cover all of your damages.

However, if they do not agree to the claim, legal proceedings will take place and we may need to present your case in court. In most cases, it is likely that you will not be required to attend the court proceedings. Instead, you can be confident that we will use the evidence gathered to fight your case for you and secure the appropriate amount of compensation for your circumstances.

Our personal injury solicitors will work tirelessly to ensure that your claim is settled favourably and amicably out of court. In the vast majority of cases, claims are resolved without needing to go to court; however, there are some cases where court proceedings are required, particularly if the defendant disputes your claim, rejects responsibility or it is not possible to reach an amicable financial settlement.

If your case does go to court, Ramsdens Solicitors will support you throughout the process.

Depending on the stage of your personal injury claim you are currently at, we may or may not be able to take over as your active legal team.

We may be able to give you a second opinion if you have been told that your claim is not worth pursuing further, whether due to the risks of proceeding further or low compensation award. If you are currently going through the claims process and believe your solicitors are not working effectively, or have been through it, and you are unhappy with the result, you should contact us for an assessment.

For more information about your circumstances, give us a call today on 0800 804 7450 so we can discuss your case and understand how we can help you.

Due to our no win, no fee service, there is little risk to your finances if your claim is unsuccessful.

In some circumstances, you may be required to pay the other party’s legal fees – in many areas of law, this is the general rule however, in Personal injury claims, these occasions are rare.

Your personal injury lawyer will be able to advise you on whether you run the risk of this before you decide to start your claim.

Your legal fees will be considered when your compensation amount is decided. This means a portion of your compensation will already be dedicated to your legal fees when you are awarded it, leaving any compensation that is intended to cover medical or therapy costs, or loss of earnings, untouched. You may also be able to get funding to help with your fees if you are concerned about the costs.

For more information about the financial aspects of your claim, visit our page here, or read more about how much you may be able to claim here.

When you first call us, we will hold an initial consultation to gather the general details of your injury and how it occurred. When you decide to proceed with your claim, we will need information, including:

• Your personal details
• The contact details of the party responsible for your claim
• Evidence of your accident and injury, including witness reports, accident log reports, medical reports, photos or videos for example.

Depending on the circumstances of your case, we may need more information. For example, if you are a foreign national visiting the UK on a visa route, we may need information about your visa.

To find out who you may be working with when you come to us with a personal injury claim, visit our team page and filter by the Personal Injury department.

Most personal injury claims require you to prove that a party acted negligently and caused your injury, which as a result caused you to suffer financial losses. If the other party has evidence to suggest that you were partly responsible for the accident, it may reduce your chances of success or at least limit how much compensation you can claim. However, if someone neglected their responsibility to keep you safe and you suffered because of it, you should speak to us. We will assess your situation and help you to understand whether you can make a claim and what your chances of success will be.

Personal injury law is highly complex and has nuances that can be exploited if the circumstances are right. If you signed a document accepting the removal of liability or responsibility from the party that you believe is responsible for your injury, it may not be possible to make a personal injury claim. However, the document may leave out certain details that could leave the other party liable in some other way or contain unreasonable and unenforceable contractual obligations.

If you believe your injury was the fault of another party, you should contact us as soon as possible and we will be able to assess your circumstances in a no-obligation consultation, informing you as to whether you may be able to make a claim, what your chances are and whether it is worth the risk.

A contingency fee is a payment that you agree to make to us if we are successful in securing or succeeding a specific amount of compensation for you. At Ramsdens, we operate on a no win, no fee basis when it comes to personal injury claims, meaning you do not have to worry about paying us unless your claim is successful. You can discuss the prospect of implementing a contingency fee with us, but we often find that the no win, no fee route is enough for our clients to proceed with making a claim for compensation for their personal injuries and any other expenses they are required to pay.