Personal Injuries: Getting Compensation for an Injury on your Person

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Personal Injuries

A personal injury can be either a physical or a psychological injury that a person suffers. It may generally result from an accident that occurs at work, in the car or elsewhere.

If you suffer a personal injury that results from someone else's negligence, you can generally claim compensation for the suffering or loss of income that results from the injury. It doesn't really matter whether the injury is short or long-term, you'll still have a claim providing it is not insignificant. The only difference is that a long-term injury will naturally lead to a greater level of compensation because you will have suffered for longer, will potentially have incurred more expense and your loss of income will be higher.

Many personal injury claims arise through a person's work, with the Health and Safety Executive reporting that there are more than 150,000 injuries at work every year in the UK. Of these, over 1,000 people sustain broken bones or head injuries every month at work. In addition, more than two million people are currently suffering from ill health that is directly attributable to the jobs they do.

In order to make a personal injury claim, you must do this within specified time limits or risk losing your right to make a claim. In England and Wales, you have to start court proceedings within three years of being aware that you have suffered an injury, although a court may in certain circumstances extend or waive the time limit. This limitation does not extend to those who are aged under eighteen at the time the injury was sustained, who can start proceedings at any time before their 21st birthday.

In some cases, a degree of delay may be inevitable because the nature of the injury may make it impossible to diagnose the full effect immediately. A doctor will be obliged to assess the extent of recovery that is likely, possible future lifestyle and the effect on earning ability and even life expectancy. This may take some months to become apparent and so a true claim cannot be started until then, otherwise there is a danger that the claim may be pitched too low.

Any permanent disabilities have to be fully assessed and taken into account while some problems, such as industrial deafness, may take some considerable time to become apparent. Nevertheless, the principle of starting a claim as soon as possible still applies. Once a claim does get underway, it should be settled within twelve months although complex and contested claims can take longer. Some personal injury claims can take several years to resolve but interim payments are sometimes made.

Other popular articles related to this one include: Personal Injuries, Compensation Claims, Personal Injury Claims, Accident Injury Claims, Personal Injury Compensation, Government Compensation Schemes, No Win No Fee, and . Please let us know if you find any errors.

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