Guide to Personal Injury

Do you want to make a claim for personal injury?

Have you sustained an injury at work? Do you want to claim compensation? How do you find a personal injury lawyer? What does ‘no win no fee’ mean?

The answers to these and other questions can be found in this comprehensive guide to personal injury. This guide is here to help you if you wish to make a claim for personal injury compensation; find a solicitor or to gain a greater understanding of the claims process.

Personal injury as a life changing event

A personal injury – whether it is sustained at work, on holiday, in a public area or as a result of a leisure activity, has a dramatic effect upon you and anyone close to you. In some cases it can permanently change your life. But whatever the extent of the injury, the important issue here is what action you should take regarding your own personal injury. This is where this guide can help. It provides a wide range of easy to understand information which is designed to demystify the legal process of making a personal injury claim.

This guide is here to help or anyone you know who has become incapacitated as a result of an accident, illness or injury.

Structured, logical guide about personal injury

This guide covers the subject of personal injury in great detail and is arranged as follows:

This guide starts with a look at what personal injury is before going on to discuss the various types of personal injury.

An in-depth look at the types of personal injury

What type of personal injury do you have? There is a wide range of personal injuries which include work related injuries, accidents and illness whilst abroad, sports injuries, criminal injuries and military injuries.

Personal injury law firms, solicitors and claims management companies have people trained in a wide area of accidents and injuries – some of which are certainly more unusual than others. They will be able to advise you about every aspect of your injury and how to make a claim for compensation, whatever the cause of your injury.

If you are not sure where your personal injury fits then have a look through the various categories within this site. Each category contains a list of the most common personal injuries plus a few that you may not be familiar with.

Each of these examples of personal injury contains a description of what the injury is, how it has occurred plus advice on how to prevent any further accidents or injury, e.g. motorbike accidents.

Negligence

The main issue in any personal injury claim is negligence. If you sustained an injury due to someone else’s negligence or lack of duty of care then you may be entitled to compensation.

But this has to be proven.

If you pursue a claim but are found to have contributed to the injury in some way or other then this may reduce the amount of compensation you receive.

It all rests on burden of proof. You have to provide evidence that your injury was caused by someone else’s fault rather than by any actions on your part.

Personal injuries can be sustained as a result of an accident but others occur due to a lack of care or negligence. The issue is proving if your personal injury is a result of an accident or a failure of duty of care.

Find out more in our accident or negligence section.

Action to take following a personal injury

If you have become injured then you have a few decisions to make. These include deciding who to report your accident to, making a complaint or pursuing a claim for compensation.

These decisions about personal injury are discussed in greater detail within this guide.

After a personal injury

An important factor in all of this is that of your finances. If you have become injured as a result of playing a sport or following a car accident then you are likely to require time off from work.

This means a loss of earnings which can result in severe financial difficulties.

Find out more about these in our financial problems from personal injury section.

Support and/or counselling are often required following a personal injury. Find out more about what it is on offer and how it can help you within this guide.

The rise of compensation culture

Compensation has become a dirty word for many people and is cited as a cause of many of the problems in today’s society. There is a view that it has become all too easy to claim compensation for things which are nothing more than issues of common sense.

There has been an increase in the number of compensation cases reported in the media. These have resulted in the phrase ‘compensation culture’but is this actually the case?

This highly controversial subject is discussed in more detail within this guide.

This subject also forms part of a list of facts and fiction about personal injury claims.

Myths and facts about personal injury

There are a number of myths that surround this subject with a corresponding number of facts. One example of this is that every compensation case has to be dealt with in court whereas the reality is that many cases are settled out or court.

These are discussed further in our personal injury fact and fiction section.

We hope that this gives you an overview of what is contained within this guide but if you have any questions the visit our personal injury FAQs section. This contains a list of the most commonly asked questions (and answers) about personal injury.

And finally: we have included a glossary of legal terms used in personal injury compensation claims.

Find out more about personal injury

Personal Injury Guide

Medic8® Guides

© Medic8® | All Rights Reserved