Frequently asked questions: Personal injury

• Can I claim compensation?
• How do I claim compensation?
• What will the solicitor do?
• How much compensation will I get?
• How much will it cost?
• How long will the claim take?
• Our Personal and Medical Injuries department
• Some recent awards

Can I claim compensation for personal injury?

Yes - if you have had an accident that was at least in part the fault of another person or organisation and it has caused you injury. If the accident was more than 3 years ago you may be too late to claim, but this can be a complex legal issue and we can advise you on this.

How do I claim for personal injury compensation?

Call us! In all but the very smallest claims it is best to consult a personal injury solicitor. The law can be complex, and as you are generally entitled to recover your legal costs in a successful claim, and we can offer ‘no win no fee’ agreements for funding cases, you have the peace of mind of knowing that your case will be properly investigated and that you will not be under compensated or denied compensation when you ought to receive it.

What will the Solicitor do?

The first thing we will do is listen to you.  We will ask you for details of how the accident happened, who was involved, what your injuries were and what effect this has had on you.

We will discuss the best way to fund your claim,  This may be with a ‘no win no fee’ agreement or you may have legal expenses insurance which will cover our costs.

Once we have established that you probably have a claim, we will write to the party who caused the accident intimating your claim.  The other party and their insurers then have three months to investigate the claim and let us know whether they admit that they are responsible.  In many cases they do so. If they do not accept responsibility for your accident we may need to carry out some further investigation into what happened.

We will also discuss with you at various stages through your case, whether you would be helped by any additional medical treatment, or help at home, for which we may be able to get funding from the other side’s insurers, or whether you simply need an early interim payment because money is tight following the accident.

In order for us to be able to properly understand how you were injured in the accident, and whether you will make a full recovery, or whether you need any further treatment, we will usually ask an independent medical expert to examine you and report on the injuries caused by the accident. In some cases the other side’s insurers will also ask for you to be examined.

We will also discuss with you any financial losses you have incurred, or will incur in the future.

Once the medical report is received and we are clear about the extent of your past and future financial losses, we will advise you on how much compensation you are likely to recover.  In more complicated cases we may ask a specialist barrister to advise on this. The medical report and details of your financial losses are then sent to the other party’s insurers and we will try and negotiate a settlement for you. Usually we are able to do so.  In rare cases, and more often in cases involving more serious injury, it may be necessary for us to bring proceedings in court on your behalf so that a judge can decide how much compensation you should receive if we are unable to agree on a settlement with the other party’s insurers.

In any event we will guide you through each stage of the process and are on hand to answer all your queries as they arise

How much compensation will I get?

The amount of compensation depends very much on the sort of injury you have had, how much medical treatment you have needed, how the injury has affected you, how much time off work you have had, how much care you have needed from other people and, crucially, what the future holds.

No two claims are exactly the same, which is why it is essential to have a specialist solicitor to advise and guide you.

In the more serious cases it may not be possible to work out the proper compensation until the injuries have settled down and the medical expert can make an accurate prediction about the future. When this happens we will advise you about claiming an interim payment so you can get on with life and are not left waiting for things you need to buy now.  

How much will it cost?

If you decide to pursue a claim on your own then you will not have any solicitor‘s costs to pay but there will be other expenses such as medical report and court fees. If you lose you may have to pay the other side‘s costs. We do not recommend that you should try and get compensation on your own unless your claim is for very minor injuries.

Serious accidents, where there is a dispute about who is to blame and the amount of compensation which should be awarded, can be very expensive to run.  However we can offer you proper protection from being faced with a bill for your legal costs.  We can offer ‘no win no fee’ agreements which means that you pay us nothing for our fees if you are unsuccessful.  If you win your case you are generally entitled to recover your reasonable costs together with your compensation.  We can also advise you if you have legal expenses insurance.

How long will the claim take?

Some of the simplest claims can be completed in 6 - 9 months from first seeing a solicitor, but normally it takes at least a year. These are claims where there is an early decision that there will be no dispute about who is to blame for the accident, the injuries are straightforward, and it is possible to obtain a medical report quickly.

Claims involving more serious injuries, where there is a dispute about who is to blame for the injuries will take much longer particularly where care and medical treatment will be required for the rest of the injured person‘s life.

It is important to know the extent of the injuries caused by an accident, and it is generally better to wait until the injuries have settled down before settling the claim because it is not possible to come back later and say, “the injuries are worse than I thought, can I have some more compensation?” Normally, once a claim has been settled that will be end of it.

Our Personal and Medical Injuries Department

The department is headed by Richard Barcan and Marina Van Vessem who are members of the SRA’s Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme. They have many years experience of dealing with a wide variety of personal injury claims. They also handle clinical negligence claims. They are assisted by a team of specialist highly trained solicitors and their support team.

Our Personal and Medical Injuries Department‘s offices are in the centre of Bristol. They are fully wheelchair accessible. We can also see you at our other offices in North and South Bristol. We offer home or hospital visits if you cannot get to us.

Some recent awards

• Slipping while a patient in Hospital - £42,500
• Back injured while rescuing colleague - £170,000
• Lost index finger at work - £52,000
• Minor whiplash - £1,800
• Handicapped son breaks leg - £9000
• Fell due to pothole in road £15,250
• Cupboard fell on head at work - £14,250
• Skiing Accident - £40,000
• Motorway smash - £140,000
• Facial and head injuries in motorcycle accident - £200,000
• Injured hip in road traffic accident - £280,000

Some of our cases

Whiplash Injury results in damages of £1.85 million

Believed highest award recovered in England for whiplash injury at the time. We recovered £1.85 million for our client in this case, who was 44 years old at the time of her road traffic accident.

Her injuries caused intrusive neck and back pain, vestibular dysfunction causing nausea, dizziness and cognitive problems, and fatigue.

The Claimant consulted us after she was dissatisfied at the way the firm she had originally instructed were handling her claim. We took it over and carried out a detailed investigation of what the Claimant‘s injuries were and how this had affected her life.

Once all the information was to hand we arranged a meeting with the Defendant‘s legal team and we were able to negotiate a settlement for our client. In this case, as is usually the case, we could settle the matter without the client having to go to court.

Broken Foot - £22,000

This young woman was very keen on horses. When she was 15, her horse stumbled in a large pothole in the lane near where she lives. The horse was only walking at the time. It fell with its full weight on her, breaking a bone in her foot and also injuring her back. The injury meant that riding became too painful for her. We brought a claim against the Local Authority responsible for the lane. They denied liability and blamed her for the accident but eventually they settled the claim for £22,000.

Fall on moving bus - £15,125

An elderly lady fell when the bus she had boarded pulled away from the bus stop sharply before she had been able to sit down. She complained of back pain, which was severe enough to keep her off work for several months. She was then due to retire in any event. She continued to find heavy housework, gardening, and walking her dog difficult. The bus company would not admit liability despite independent witness evidence confirming that the bus had jerked away sharply causing our client to fall. The case settled shortly before trial for £15,125.

Car crash death - £52,000

Our client‘s husband was killed in a car crash. The other driver did not stop but has registration number was noted down by a witness. The Police investigated but there was not enough evidence to prosecute. The driver did not have any insurance. We investigated and concluded there was enough evidence to show the other driver was to blame to enable our client to recover compensation. We notified the Motor Insurers Bureau(MIB) who deal with cases where no insurance company has been identified.

The MIB initially denied liability so we had to start legal proceedings. Eventually they agreed that our client would succeed. The MIB argued that our client‘s husband health was very bad before the accident and so she should not be entitled to much compensation. Despite this, shortly before trial they agreed to pay £52,000. Our client was able to decorate her council house, which her husband had been doing when he died. She subsequently bought it

Car crash whiplash - £34,000

Our client was in her stationary car when it was struck from behind. Our client sustained whiplash injuries. She took time off from her job as an administrator in a local school. When she returned her neck would ache regularly after sitting down. She had trouble reaching up high. Doctors agreed that these symptoms though minor would be permanent.

The other driver‘s insurance company admitted liability but were only prepared to pay £22,000. We advised our client that that was not enough and the claim was worth £32,000 - 36,000. At trial our client was awarded £34,000

Lifting at work caused hernia - £300,000

Our client suffered a hernia as a result of a lifting injury at work. Some three months later he had an operation to repair the hernia. However the pain he was suffering from didn't‘t get any better. It was so bad that he could hardly walk. It affected everything he did. He has not been able to return to work since the accident to earn the money needed to support his family. The doctors told him that he should get better and that they could find no cause for his continuing pain. It was only nearly three years after the accident that he finally began to accept that he might never get better. He then began to wonder whether something may have gone wrong with his operation, and asked us to investigate that initially. We advised him that he might also have a claim against his employers because of the type of lifting he had to do which caused the hernia.

After investigating the medical treatment our client received we could find no evidence of anything having gone wrong in the operation, and then concentrated our investigations on the circumstances of the accident. It was a long time since the accident happened and his employers said they had no record of the accident occurring. We had to trace witnesses who had long since moved or left the company. There was the additional problem that no-one knew why he was still in so much pain as there was no obvious physical cause.

Eventually we recovered £300,000 from his former employer‘s insurers. This has allowed our client to buy more suitable accommodation, as he could no longer manage stairs, and a car and electric wheelchair so that he can get out of the house more easily.