What is a Personal Injury Claim?
A personal injury is an injury sustained by an individual from either an accident or medical negligence. In the UK, you can make a personal injury claim if you have had an accident, contracted a disease or suffered medical negligence through no fault of your own.
Personal injury claims can fall into many different categories, from car accident claims to slips, trips and falls. One of the most common personal injury claims is the work accident claim. According to the Health and Safety Executive, more than 150,000 individuals per year are injured while at work and more than two million individuals currently suffer from injuries they sustained while on the job. Working without proper safety training or protocols, obstacles in the work area, unsafe or wet flooring, unsecured cables or wiring - all these can contribute to accidents in the workplace.
By no means are workplace accidents the only types of injuries for which you can file a personal injury claim, however. Other common claim types include traffic accidents (both automobile and motorcycle), industrial hazards or diseases such as unknown exposure to hazardous waste products, medical or dental negligence caused by a careless health care professional and the like.
Personal injury claims usually fall into two types - short term and long term claims. Short term claims are injuries from which recovery usually occurs over a relatively short period, say a few weeks, and the injured individual is returned to full capacity. Long term claims involve more permanent injuries and can often result in the injured individual being unable to return to their job or related functions as a result of the injury. The claim process is designed to offset the pain, suffering, and loss of income the individual experiences in this type of situation.
Occasionally an injured individual will hesitate to file a claim out of social pressure or a sense of guilt. If you find yourself in this position, remember that a successful personal injury claim can often have a positive impact on the conditions that caused the injury in the first place, altering workplace environments, safety practices, medical procedures and other similar aspects that might prevent another individual from being injured in the future.
While personally injury claims can be handled directly by the injured individual, you stand a far greater chance of success if you hire an expert company, with knowledge about the myriad aspects of such a procedure. These individuals are known as personal injury solicitors and many work on a no-win, no-fee arrangement, assuring that they will work hard on your behalf to resolve the claim to your complete satisfaction.
Learn more about working with a personal injury solicitor to handle your claim or use our contact form to get in touch with us.