About 3 years ago I was assaulted by a drunk outside of a nightclub in my home town. It was an entirely unprovoked attack that nearly killed me. I was hospitalised, and required minor surgery. This all took place two days before I was to return to University.

I couldn’t make it back on time, and my work suffered. In between visits by the police over the next couple of months, I slipped into a depression. Luckily, my attacker was caught and there was substantial evidence to see him sentenced. This left me in a position to claim compensation.

I decided to hire a solicitor from Pannone (a firm I was recommended by a friend) and they successfully won compensation for me. As well as winning the compensation they provided services that helped me emotionally too. To be honest I was hesitant at first to make a claim – I felt bad when I shouldn’t have done – but they were very good at explaining to me why I should.

That’s the reason I’m writing this: for the folk who feel al little bad about making a claim. maybe you’ve been injured at work, but you love the company; maybe you think making a claim would ruin your reputation. Whatever you might be feeling, here are a few reasons why you should make a claim:

1) It’s not just about the actual injury:

As I mentioned earlier, I missed a lot of time from University. This damged my grade that year, and ultimately, my grade for my entire course. Even using the ‘mitigating circumstances’ clause in my course I didn’t achieve the grade I know I would have been able to, had I not been injured. This isn’t just something that affected me at University, this is something that is going to affect me for the rest of my life.

Basically, some workplaces will not hire me because of the quality of my degree. This isn’t my fault. This is my attackers fault. Even if my injury was slight (which it wasn’t) it might still have lasting affects. Compensation can’t entirely make up for this, but it can help.

2) If somebody screwed up once, they’ll probably do it again, unless you show them why they shouldn’t:

That brief description doesn’t explain this that great, so I’ll put it another way: If you work for a company that washes the floors every Monday morning (and the guy  forgets to put the sign out) and you slip, and then do nothing about it, they probably won’t change the way (and time) they clean that floor. If you make a claim, they will have to analyse why it happened and make a change (such as doing it last thing on a Friday after everyone has left).

Making a claim is not always about doing justice to yourself – sometimes it’s about doing the right thing for everybody.

3) It gives you a sense of self-worth:

One of the worst things about being in the position to make a claim is that you are usually a victim, and it a lot of cases you probably won’t be feeling that great about yourself. I know I wasn’t. Making a claim can make you feel a bit better about yourself, especially when you start using phrases like “I deserve this”. Positive affirmations, and really believing them, go a long way to helping emotional recovery.

So there you have it: the reasons I really think you should make a claim. I hope that this helps some of you out there. I know this advice helped me.