What Will Happen When I Make A Claim?
When you contact us, you’ll speak to one of our friendly team members, who will talk to you about your child’s injury, or yours, if you have been injured. This initial consultation is free and from there, we’ll advise you on the best way to take your claim forward.
Contacting Those Responsible For Your Child’s Injuries
We’ll then get in touch with those responsible for your child’s accident at an early stage to see if they accept the blame for what happened. If they accept responsibility, we’ll try to secure some compensation upfront, which can fund private medical care and expenses while the claim is ongoing. These payments, known as interim payments, will be taken out of the final compensation award.
Gathering Evidence
Our experts will look into your case in detail, gathering evidence from various sources such as witnesses, CCTV and independent medical professionals.
We’ll employ medical professionals to find out how your child’s accident has impacted on their future health and they’ll recommend the care your child needs to make the best recovery possible.
Final Settlement & Compensation Awarded
All personal injury cases involving children have to go before a judge for an infant approval hearing. This hearing happens even when a compensation sum has been agreed with your opponent and is in place to make sure that your child gets a fair settlement.
How Will You Handle My Claim?
While the odd bump or scrape in the playground might be expected, oversights can lead to more serious injury. Where injury or illness could have been prevented, this can constitute negligence.
Examples of this could include:
Faulty equipment, such as desks, chairs or toys
Slippery floors or loose carpets
Contaminated or underprepared food in the canteen
Lack of adequate supervision
Children cannot be wrapped in cotton wool and accidents do happen. However, you have a right to expect that your child will be kept safe while on school grounds or elsewhere under staff supervision – on a school trip, for example. When safety procedures are not followed it can lead to harm. Making a personal injury claim not only enables you to secure compensation for your child, but could also help highlight problems and ensure that the same mistakes are not made in future.
If you would like to find out more about making a claim, contact us free on 0800 056 4110 .
What Can Compensation Pay For?
By making a personal injury compensation claim on behalf of your child, you can access funds to help cover expenses and any medical treatment they might need.
Every personal injury case is different, so there's no set amount of compensation your child will receive. The final amount awarded will depend on your family's circumstances, the severity of your child's injuries and their chances of making a full recovery. In child injury cases we often have to consider how the child's symptoms could develop in the future as some injuries can develop with growth.
Our children's accident lawyers could help you get compensation for:
Private medical treatment - to help speed up and maximise recoveryHome tutors - if your child has to take a lot of time off school, compensation can pay for tutoring to help them keep up with their workLoss of earnings - for any time off work you have to take to look after your childExpenses - such as travelling to medical appointmentsRehabilitation - to make sure your child makes the best recovery they can, compensation can pay for rehab and support both now and in the futureHousehold adaptations - these can help your child live more independently, click here for more details
For more information on making a child injury claim, contact our experts today on 0800 056 4110 .
How Long Do I Have To Make A Claim?
If you are claiming for yourself, you usually have three years from the date of the accident to make a claim. By getting in touch with us shortly after your accident, it can make collecting evidence a little easier as there are often fewer problems finding witnesses whose statements we need to support your case.
If you're making a claim on behalf of a child, you'll normally be able to make a claim up until their 18th birthday. Despite this, we urge you to contact us as soon as possible if your child has been injured in an accident because we could help them access rehabilitation and support to help with their recovery.
We could also help you make a claim if you were in an accident before you turned 18. If you want to claim compensation for an accident that happened while you were a child, you will have three years from your 18th birthday to make a claim.
Who Can I Make A Claim Against?
If your child's injury is the result of someone else's negligence, we could help you make a claim. Examples of those you could make a claim against include:
Schools and academies
Teaching staff and others employed by the school
Trusts in charge of the school or academy
To find out more about how we could help you, contact us on 0800 056 4110 .
Can I Make A No Win No Fee Claim?
Many of our cases are funded with a No Win No Fee agreement. This means that there's no financial risk* to you when making a compensation claim.
At the start of your case we'll discuss funding options with you, advising you which we think is most suitable. If you have legal expenses insurance (LEI) or are covered by a trade union policy, these may be better options to fund your claim. Legal expenses insurance is included in many household insurance policies, so it's always worth checking whether you're already covered.
If we think you're best supported by a No Win No Fee agreement, we'll explain the process clearly. This involves setting up an insurance policy that will protect you, at no cost to you. You'll only have to pay anything when your claim is successful – your opponent will pay most of our fees.
Please visit our No Win No Fee page for more information on how it works.
Our Experts
We have a specialist team of highly qualified and experienced personal injury solicitors who have years of experience in helping families claim compensation after their child was injured in an accident.
This experience means that we're aware of the issues that you and your child will be facing and we acknowledge that your child's health is your main priority. We'll work hard to get your child access to the best care on offer, using our contacts at support groups across the country to put in place a rehabilitation plan.
Your child's injury can have an impact upon the entire family, so we work closely with other departments at the firm so we can give you detailed advice on issues such as:
Educational problems
Accommodation
Ongoing care
Family matters
Financial matters
As the largest personal injury team in the country, with offices across the UK, you can be reassured that you're getting the best legal help available. We've won awards for our client care and focus on rehabilitation, picking up the Claimant Solicitor of the Year prize at the Rehabilitation First Awards on seven different occasions.
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