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Liability |
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Blame for a wrongful act. A
person can be liable as a result of a negligence act (see below) or
through being in breach of a duty owed under an Act of Parliament. |
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Negligence |
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This is not simply a careless act.
To prove negligence, there must have been:
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a ‘duty of care’ owed to you by the Defendant,
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a breach of that duty, a
failure to act according to the legal standard of care and
· damage
suffered by you, which was caused by this breach. |
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Third Party or
Defendant |
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A term referring to the person you are
claiming against. This may be an individual, a company or a local
authority, to mention a few possibilities. If Court proceedings
have to be issued, the “third party” becomes known as the “Defendant”. |
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Damages |
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An award of money compensation. |
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General Damages |
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Losses which cannot be calculated by
arithmetic, such as injury damages for pain and suffering. |
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Special Damages |
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Losses which can be calculated by
arithmetic. This includes all claims for financial losses, both
past and future, including loss of past and future earnings. |
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Quantum |
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How much: the amount of damages. |
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Letter of Claim |
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An important document in which the
circumstances giving rise to the claim are set out and the precise
reasons for alleging that the Defendant is at fault. This is sent
to the Defendant at the start of the claim. |
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Interim Payment |
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This is a payment on account.
Rather than waiting until the end of your claim to receive all your
damages, you can probably receive some payments earlier on provided that
liability is admitted. Most frequently, these payments will
reimburse you for particular expenses such as the policy excess payable
in a road accident claim, or the cost of physiotherapy treatment. |
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Medical Expert |
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A suitably qualified medical
practitioner we will select and ask to examine you, review your medical
records, and then prepare a detailed medical report. This will
usually be a GP or consultant and will be an independent practitioner,
not someone who has been treating you. The Defendant is also
allowed to choose their own expert. Whether preparing a report at
our request, or at the request of the Defendant, the medical expert is
obliged to give an objective, unbiased opinion. |
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Medical Report |
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This is a crucial document in an
accident claim and forms the basis for working out how much money you
should receive. It contains the medical expert’s findings on
examining you, outlines your medical history pre- and post-accident,
gives recommendations for treatment, if relevant, and gives the expert’s
opinion about how long your symptoms are likely to last, if you have not
already made a complete recovery. |
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CPR |
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This refers to the Civil Procedure
Rules 1998 which brought radical changes to the way that injury and other
claims are conducted (also known as the Woolf reforms). |
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JSB Guidelines |
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Published guidance on the level of
injury damages compiled for the Judicial Studies Board which is the
training body for Judges. |
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Limitation |
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The time limit for bringing a claim in
the courts. The rules are complex but the basic rule is that court
proceedings must be started within 3 years from the date of the injury.
However, in some cases it should be earlier. The time limits are
different for children or incapable adults. |
accident
claims
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