Road traffic accidents are incredibly disruptive, affecting many aspects of your life. At Oakwood Solicitors, we aim to alleviate this burden with our “One Stop Shop” service, covering all your post-accident needs.
Whether you were a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist, we will handle your personal injury claim, vehicle damage, and any other related expenses. Our goal is to recover the maximum compensation for your injuries and losses in non-fault accidents, providing you with comprehensive support and peace of mind.
What expenses can I claim?
In a road traffic accident, you can claim for various expenses, including injuries, vehicle damage, and out-of-pocket costs. These claims are classified as special damages and general damages for pain and suffering.
We can assist you in recovering the following types of expenses:
- Personal Injury: Compensation for pain and suffering, psychological effects, and physical damage. Prescription fees, medical treatment expenditures, and rehabilitation expenses may also be included.
- Damage to your motor vehicle: This could be the cost of the repairs, or the pre-accident value of the vehicle if it is deemed a total loss.
- Policy excess: Subject to evidence of the loss, this can be claimed from the third-party insurers.
- Medication costs: Subject to receipts, this is recoverable from the third-party insurers, provided that it is deemed that it was necessary to incur the expense.
- Treatment costs: As long as it was reasonable that the treatment was incurred and caused by injuries sustained, we can recover this from the third-party insurers. Future surgery may be recommended – if so, we can obtain suitable quotations and seek the funding for that surgery upfront.
- Loss of/damage to clothing and personal effects: Accidents can damage items, such as torn clothing or broken electronic devices. It is recommended to keep them as evidence and take photographs for third-party insurers. If you purchase a new item to replace it, keep the receipt.
- Lost earnings: If you are unable to work due to injury, you can claim compensation from third-party insurers using wage slips or profit and loss accounts. The claim can be submitted with medical evidence, assuming the accident may have affected your future work ability.
- Travel expenses: We can include travel expense claims. This may be trips to physiotherapy, doctor or hospital appointments, taxi or bus fare, or petrol expenses.
- Vehicle diminution: Your car may have lost market value due to being damaged and repaired. We can recover this loss for you by obtaining a specialist engineer’s report. Read information about vehicle Diminution here.
- Care and assistance: Employing someone for gardening, cleaning, cooking, washing, or personal hygiene can be claimed from third-party insurers, subject to medical evidence, and may apply to future care and assistance, whether from professionals, family members, or friends.
- House alterations: Your injuries may be substantial enough to warrant alterations to your home. Whether this is widening doors or fitting ramps, or handrails, these costs can be recovered if medical evidence states that it was necessary.
- Hire charges: If you have paid for a hire vehicle, we can recover the cost of this for you from the third-party insurers. Sometimes it is possible to arrange a credit hire vehicle for you whilst your own is out of action.
- Any other expenses: You may have paid for postage and phone calls or have pension entitlement. Whatever you feel you have incurred, we are happy to discuss this further with you to explore whether it is something we can assist with during the claims process.
Why is claiming expenses after a road traffic accident important?
Claiming expenses after a road traffic accident is incredibly important for several reasons, primarily to ensure you are not left out of pocket due to someone else’s negligence and to cover the various costs that can arise from such an event.
If you believe you are owed expenses from your road traffic accident. Find out your eligibility for a claim today.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to do to claim expenses?
Ensure that you keep any receipts you have received after purchasing anything, such as painkilling medication, physiotherapy, or incurring a fee for a taxi.
If you have lost earnings as a result of the accident, you will be asked to provide 13 weeks’ worth of wage slips prior to the accident, and wage slips covering the period of the absence when making a claim.
It may also be necessary to provide a copy of your employment contract if you received sick pay from your employers. This sick pay may be recoverable from your employers if the absence was caused by the negligence of a third party.
If you are self-employed, you will need to provide profit and loss accounts to act as evidence that you have sustained a financial loss as a result of your road traffic accident.
How long will the claim take?
This depends on the nature of your claim. Yes, a simple, straightforward case could take approximately three months to resolve.
This would involve submitting the claim, receiving an admission of liability from the third party insurers, obtaining your medical report from an independent doctor, (and that you are happy with the content of the report), having proactive negotiations with the third party insurers and agree a reasonable offer from them which is agreed and paid promptly.
A claim without court proceedings typically takes six to nine months due to issues resolving. Insurers aim to minimize losses and will argue to reduce the number of cases they pay compensation on and the amount they must pay on each case. Therefore, it is crucial to consider all potential points in a claim.
Examples of issues commonly raised by motor insurers are:
- Occupancy: This relates to how many people are in the vehicle. There can sometimes be a dispute as to the number of occupants that were in the car when the accident occurred. This is more common when there have been young children in the car who have gone unnoticed amongst the stress of the accident.
- Liability: In simple terms, this is the determination of who is to blame for causing the accident. It could be that several drivers take a percentage of the responsibility each, or that one person is found solely to be the cause of the collision.
- Causation: This looks specifically at the injuries that have been reported and whether they have been caused by the accident.
- Quantum of the Injury: This relates to valuing the claim. There is often a disagreement between a Solicitor and the insurer over how much a personal injury claim is worth.
- Quantum of the Expenses being claimed: Similar to the claim for injury, claims for expenses can be disputed. This can either be that there is a disagreement over the final figure or that the expenses should apply at all. This can often result when there is a lack of documentation to support the loss.
There may be cases that go on for longer. It could be that there are many of the above issues to resolve with the insurers, and that it becomes necessary to involve the courts.
It may be that the injuries you have sustained are in some way unusual or are severe, and that as a result of this, it is necessary to obtain multiple reports to be able to determine the nature of the injuries you have sustained and the impact they have had on your life.
Will I need to go to court?
It is possible, but only an exceedingly small percentage of claims need to involve the courts, and fewer still will run to trial.
In the end, it will boil down to how strong your case is, how reasonable the third-party insurers are, along with your expectations and willingness to negotiate.
Further information:
Oakwood Solicitors Driver and Passenger Claims.
Oakwood Solicitors Uninsured and Unidentified Driver Claims.
WHAT TO DO NEXT?
If you have been involved in a road traffic accident and are seeking a claim for your expenses, get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation.
Choose one of the methods on the right-hand side of this page or call us on 0113 323 2704 to find out how we can help you.
Download PDF
Rob Crompton joined Oakwood Solicitors in July 2007 as a Road Traffic Accident Paralegal Fee Earner. Rob has progressed through the organisation and holds the current position of Head of Personal Inj…
We would love to hear your comments or feedback
Making a Personal Injury Claim
When making a claim for Personal Injury, it is important for the Claimant to make sure that they are certain of the facts and figures before it is submitted.
View
Road Rage Incidents and Vehicles Used As Weapons
Every year on the roads of Britain, around one in five road users are threatened with physical violence. …
View
UK Driving Age Restrictions
Driving has no upper age limit in the UK. Though this is the case, there are restrictions based on certain conditions and checks put in place to try and ensure that drivers remain safe as they age…
View
