Top Tips When Making Personal Injury Claims

With more accidents on the road, work related accidents and slips, trips and falls being reported than ever before, the Accident Advice Helpline has revealed the 6 top tips to help victims successfully make Personal Injury Claims.

1. Write everything down

For victims of accidents, it is important to keep as much information as possible. Claimants need to get the names and addresses of everyone who was involved in the accident, including any witnesses. If the victim is incapacitated to the point that they cannot do this for themselves, then someone else needs to take control of the situation and get these details written down.

Keeping a note of all medical appointments attended, diagnoses, prescribed medication and details of all symptoms will also help in pursuing personal injury claims. It can be a good idea to start a diary or journal, noting down events of importance or the development of new symptoms when they happen.

2. Take photos where possible

It is said that a picture tells a thousand words, and never has that been truer than in the world of personal injury claims law. A few years ago, it would have been very unusual to expect the prosecution to be able to produce photographs of a vehicle collision, a poorly maintained pavement that caused a trip or other pictorial evidence to support their case. However, with so many people owning mobile phones with cameras on board these days, it is easier than ever for people to snap a picture of the situation as it happens. Victims with photographic evidence will find the defence has far less room for manoeuvre and therefore their claim can be processed much more quickly and smoothly than it would without the images.

3. Keep everything in a folder or file

If there is one thing that the Accident Advice Helpline has learned through its years of involvement in the personal injury claims industry, it is that these processes are easier if you stay organised. With this in mind, its’ a good idea to start a file or folder for your personal injury claim as early on as possible. Even if the victim doesn’t file things in any sort of order, just having all the necessary paperwork in one place will inevitably take the stress out of making a claim.

4. Prove it

Often being injured in an accident has much further reaching consequences than one might think. As well as the immediate implications of not being able to work or to drive, for instance, there are also longer term implications relating to the care of the victim, their home and their family. Many people who are injured to the extent that it takes a few weeks, or even months, before they are back on their feet find that they need to enlist the help of family, friends and professionals to help them keep on top of everyday jobs, childcare or home maintenance tasks.

However, it is not enough to simply state as part of personal injury claims that the victim has done this or that; it is better if you can prove it. Claimants can help with this process by keeping receipts, invoices, bank statements or anything they think will help to calculate the total costs involved in their case. Expenses relating to medicines, food and drinks bought whilst in hospital and petrol used by relatives taking the claimant to medical appointments can all be claimed for too, so the best course of action is to keep everything written down and as many receipts as possible to get back everything you are entitled to.

5. Get Expert Advice

Accident Advice Helpline offer free expert advice so you can discuss your case in detail with no obligation and find out about the process of claiming. They can also ensure that you will end up with a 100% No Win Fee Solicitor from their long established and vetted panel of specialists.

Quite often the best solicitors in the business are not the ones that shout the loudest, so avoid the ones who approach victims in hospitals or have overbearing television adverts. Claimants should take some time to check the services available and to ask about solicitors experience with personal injury claims cases to make sure they get the right person on board with their case.

6. Settle early where possible

When a solicitor has had a chance to contact the defendant and they have admitted liability, they will usually be able to give an indication of roughly how much they think the claim is worth. At this point, they will often ask the claimant what level of compensation they would be willing to accept and in the majority of cases an offer will be made to settle the case out of court for this amount. This means the claimant will get paid faster and that a good deal of stress will be taken out of the process, leaving the victim of the accident in peace to concentrate on their recovery.

For claimants who have suffered injuries through accidents that were not their fault, making personal injury claims with the right company should be a fairly straightforward process. By following the advice offered here by the Accident Advice Helpline, their experts say claims will be processed faster and compensation amounts will generally be higher.