Personal Injury Claims – How Much Can I Claim?

When making a personal injury claim it is important to appreciate the other side’s insurance company and their solicitors will do everything in their power to persuade you and the court that you do not have a good case or that you are not entitled to parts of your claim. You need expert personal injury solicitors who know the system and how to get the compensation you are entitled to and what your claim is worth. Bear in mind each case is different. Even those which appear to be identical. Two people with neck/whiplash injuries in the same accident can end up with strikingly different amounts of compensation. There are two main components to valuing a claim to achieve a settlement: The first is the actual injury; your pain, suffering and loss of amenity.

This is largely dependent upon your injuries and what is said in your medical report. The greatest proportion usually derives from the length of time you are in pain; usually you get more for long term back injuries than short term intensely painful spells. The second is financial loss. The bulk of compensation is usually awarded for financial losses flowing from the injuries and consequences of the accident. The larger part of an award in the bigger cases is for loss of earnings, both past and future. This is calculated based upon salary, accounts and other documentation. Everything usually has to be backed up by evidence/statements. The large headline figure awards of compensation are for high earners who have been prevented from working for the rest of their life e.g. airline captains. Future losses of earnings are calculated using complicated actuarial tables. For complicated reasons they are not calculated just using the number of years to retirement.

You can only claim for your net losses (in short, you have to deduct tax and national insurance and overheads). If you are self employed your losses are based upon your previous years accounts and tax returns. You can also claim interest, currently at 3% from the date that proceedings are issued upon damages for your injuries. In addition, you usually claim interest on the financial losses at half the court’s special investment rate (currently 6%) from the date of the accident. To get the compensation you have to know how to value the claim, what to claim for, how far to push things, how to negotiate the best deal and when to fight it in court. A good personal injury solicitor will be able to help you with this. Richard Harris Solicitors, based in Cornwall UK, have recently added case studies and settlement fees to their website to help show the amounts claimed for and won.

Cornwall Solicitors are experts in personal injury claims for more information see their website Solicitors Cornwall for all details and information.