Am I eligible to make a personal injury claim?

1. Limitation

If you're injured, you generally have 3 years to start a claim. This 3-year window is known as the 'limitation period,' ending on the 'limitation date.' The clock starts ticking from the day you become aware of your injury, called the 'date of knowledge'.

In most cases, like car or work accidents, you'll realise you're injured right away. In such cases, you have 3 years from the accident date to begin your claim.

Injuries or illnesses that take time to appear

In some cases, injuries or illnesses take time to appear or be diagnosed. Some conditions develop gradually, like hearing loss from long-term noise exposure, or illnesses from unknown exposure times, like asbestos-related diseases.

If you find out about your injury or its full impact later on, the 3-year limitation period starts from the day you became aware of it, known as the 'date of knowledge'.

Child injuries

If a child was injured, a claim can be made by a litigation friend at any point up to the child's 18th birthday. The injured person then has a further 3-years, until their 21st birthday, to start their own compensation claim.

2. Causation

To win your claim, you'll need to show the accident led to your injury, a principle called 'causation.' In straightforward claims for road or work accidents, the cause of the injury is usually clear. But in complex situations like medical negligence, proving the injury was due to negligence can be more challenging.

Your personal injury solicitor will gather as much evidence as possible to establish how your injury happened.

3. Liability

To be held legally responsible (liable) for your injury, the other party (defendant) must have had a 'duty of care' towards you. This duty means they were legally required to take reasonable steps to keep you safe. This could apply to individuals, companies, or organisations in various settings, for example:

• employers have a duty of care to their employees
• doctors have a duty of care to their patients
• owners of publicly accessible spaces have a duty of care to their customers
• road users have a duty of care to other road users.

I'm eligible but a solicitor has refused my claim

A key part of any no win, no fee agreement is the After the Event (ATE) insurance policy, which is designed to protect claimants against the financial risk of making (and losing) a legal claim.

When looking at a new claim, personal injury solicitors conduct an insurance risk assessment to decide if they can and will represent you. They're weighing up the odds of winning the case, not just checking if there's a legal claim.

Different solicitors and insurers have different opinions on what makes a case risky. So, if one firm turns you down, don't give up - get a second opinion.

I signed a disclaimer

Disclaimers are used to try to limit an organisation's responsibility for any injuries. If you've signed a disclaimer before an activity like a sporting event, you might think you won't be able to make a personal injury claim.

However, if the organisation has failed in its' duties to keep you safe, the disclaimer could be seen as unfair. So, even with a signed disclaimer, you may still be able to make a claim.

The accident was fatal

If an accident at work results in death, and the death occurs more than three years after the accident, the estate has three years from the date of death to make a claim.

The injury or illness developed over a long period

Some illnesses or conditions, such as mesothelioma from asbestos exposure, develop over a long period. These diseases often do not become apparent until many years after the exposure. In these cases the three-year limit starts from the date of diagnosis or the date when you first had reasonable grounds to believe that the condition was due to your work.

Read more:

Can I claim injury compensation if I signed a disclaimer?

Do the circumstances of my injury affect my eligibility to claim?

While the key principles outlined above help determine if you can make a claim, other factors based on your injury circumstances may also influence your eligibility to claim:

Work
accidents

Road
accidents

Public
places

Medical
negligence

Other
accidents

Online Claim Checker

To find out if you can make a personal injury claim online, try our Online Claim Checker:

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