A Summary About Personal Injury Law

Personal injury law is the branch of law which deals with compensating people who have been injured or fallen ill as a result of someone else’s fault.

Legal action for personal injury can be based a number of different types of law. For example, breach of employers liability to ensure safety in the workplace, breach of occupiers liability to maintain safe premises or breach of contract. However, most personal injury claims are based on the law of negligence.

Legally, every person has a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that people they come into contact with are not injured by their actions, where it is foreseeable that those actions might cause harm. Where someone fails in this duty they are guilty of negligence and the person who is injured has a claim against them for compensation. Examples of common negligence include situations where a pedestrian is knocked down by a careless motorist, or where someone is injured after tripping over obstacles which have been left in a thoroughfare.

How is a claim for personal injury made?
The Lord Chief Justice has issued a pre-action protocol on personal injury claims. This is essentially a series of steps and procedures which must be followed before any personal injury case can go to court. The pre-action protocol states that first the claimant must send the defendant a letter of claim setting out the circumstances of the accident, detailing the injury, explaining why the defendant is liable and setting out the compensation which the claimant believes he is entitled to. The defendant must be allowed a certain length of time to respond to this letter of claim, and the pre-action protocol also sets out what should happen if the defendant wants to instruct a doctor to produce a medical report.

The aim of these procedures is to try and resolve cases before they come to court by forcing the claimant and defendant to discuss the matter and to try and negotiate appropriate compensation between themselves.

If no agreement on compensation can be reached, the claimant will make a claim in either the County Court of the High Court. As long as the claim is worth more than £5000 it will be dealt with in a formal trial and it will be necessary for both sides to instruct lawyers.

What compensation is awarded in personal injury cases?
The Compensation which is awarded for personal injury varies from case to case. Usually the court will award a sum of money which represents the severity of the injury and the degree of pain and inconvenience which it has caused to the injured party. If the injury means that he is no longer able to do activities which he used to enjoy, for example sports, then he will usually be given additional money to compensate him for the damage to his quality of life and enjoyment.

The court will also award compensation for any financial loss which the claimant has suffered or may suffer in the future. In addition to compensation for time spent off work recovering from the injury, this will include the cost of physiotherapy and transportation to and from hospital, the cost of any special adaptations or mobility equipment, as well as a sum of money to represent the reduction in the claimants ability to earn a living or find a new job in future should this become necessary.

Finally, the court will award compensation for specific items of property which were damaged. For example, a claimant who was injured in a car accident will also be able to claim compensation for his ruined clothes, smashed glasses and damaged phone.