If you suffer an injury at work or in public, you may be eligible to receive compensation. This is possible through the civil courts, where liability can be ascertained and compensation legally ordered as recompense – but the value of that compensation claim can change, not just from the severity of the injury but also from the mishandling of your specific claim. What process should you follow after an injury to maximize your settlement?
Record Your Accident and Injuries
First and foremost, it is important that your accident and injury is documented as robustly as possible. If you are a victim of injury in the workplace, there may already be policy to record the injury in an accident book. Nonetheless – and if you suffer an injury in a public place – it is important to get as much documentation as you can, in the form of pictures and eyewitness testimony.
Seek Professional Medical Attention
Depending on the severity of your injuries, or the policies of your workplace if your injury accorded at work, you may already have seen a medical professional about your injuries. If you have elected not to, either out of lack of immediate concern for your health or due to time constraints, you should make it your priority to get seen by a doctor or GP.
This is because it is important to create a comprehensive paper trail for your injury, treatment and recovery. The medical documentation generated by your visits will be crucial for your solicitor in eventually building a strong case. Even if you have already been to the doctor, a second visit could be beneficial to consolidate certain symptoms or medical information.
Tally Costs and Losses
While your compensation claim will naturally include the direct costs associated with your recovery – particularly where disability aids and home accessibility measures are concerned – it can also include a much broader range of costs. This includes indirect costs to you, such as your loss of earnings through time spent recovering.
The potential costs you can claim back through compensation range widely, illustrating the power and importance of tallying your costs and expenses. Every taxi or bus to a doctor’s appointment, every hospital parking charge and every unused gym membership fee can be added to the tally, not to mention the time and energy put in by friends and family to accommodate your recovery needs.
Professional Consultation
At this point, you are in a position to seek proper legal counsel about your personal injury claim. With all the information in front of you, and with a clear idea of your ideal compensation value, you can consult with a solicitor to chart out your next steps and solidify your claim. Solicitors will be able to use your comprehensive documentation to approach the liable party more ‘aggressively’, increasing the likelihood of an agreeable settlement before court proceedings begin.
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