Accidents can happen almost anywhere: at home, at work or simply getting from one place to the other. The law reflects this and makes it possible for people to pursue some kind of financial compensation when they are involved in an accident that is not their fault.
The rules regarding compensation for accidents at home or at work are amongst the most well-known but we've taken the time to draft this guide which sets out in detail everything that you need to know about pursuing compensation for a road accident that occurs in the UK.
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A road traffic accident is precisely what it sounds like: any accident that happens on the UK’s roads. This covers every mode of transport ranging from buses, taxis, cars, motorbikes and even public transport.
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A road traffic accident is a kind of personal injury claim. As a result, these kinds of claim fall under a range of general rules that apply to most other kinds of accident. It is very important to note that personal injury law covers injuries sustained in an accident that are either:
As a kind of personal injury claim, road traffic accidents have to overcome the same hurdles that other kinds of accidents will be exposed to before a claim for compensation can be successful. Before any award for compensation for injuries sustained in a road traffic accident will be considered, you (the claimant or pursuer) will need to prove certain things:
In the UK, the duty of care is an obligation that is imposed on everyone not to do anything that is reasonably foreseeable as likely to cause someone else to suffer harm. Generally, it is not difficult to prove that someone is owed a duty of care. In the context of road traffic accidents, a duty of care will tend to be assumed in the vast majority of circumstances: all road users owe a duty to each other, i.e. car drivers, bus drivers, public transport drivers and passengers and even pedestrians should not do something or fail to do something that is likely to cause someone else to suffer an injury.
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This requirement can be the more difficult of the two to satisfy and will depend very heavily on the quality of evidence that is available. A compensation claim for a road traffic accident will struggle to succeed if there is nothing to demonstrate that what the road user did or failed to do, in fact caused you to suffer injury.
Examples of information that can be useful to a claim include:
As mentioned above, there must be evidence that (i) you were owed a duty of care by the other road user; and (ii) that the road user failed to observe their duty of care.
The kind of evidence that can be used in order to substantiate a compensation claim will depend on the circumstances. However, in the context of road traffic accidents generally it can be very helpful to have as much detail about the events leading up to and surrounding the accident as possible.
Most claims will be brought before the UK courts in order to be settled, and the courts will find the following kinds of evidence very helpful in deciding on your claim:
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Assuming that it is possible to evidence that you were owed a duty of care that was breached by another road user, the next step in the process of making a claim relates to the level of compensation that you can expect.
As a matter of UK law, all road users are obliged be covered by ‘third party insurance’. This is a special kind of insurance that exists specifically to provide compensation when a driver is at fault for causing someone else injury.
Generally the sum of money that you can expect as compensation for your injury will depend on the facts surrounding your accident. However, the law does provide a series of categories under which different kinds of compensation can be sought:
For help at this stage please call 01252354412, or fill out the form at the top of the page.
For help at this stage please call 01252354412, or fill out the form at the top of the page.
Nothing in this guide is intended to constitute legal advice and you are strongly advised to seek independent legal advice on matters that affect you.
For help at this stage please call 01252354412, or fill out the form at the top of the page.