So, liability for your accident has been agreed upon, and you have unfortunately been held 50% responsible for the accident – however, what about claiming for the injuries sustained in the accident?
Although you have been held partly responsible for the accident, you are not fully at fault – so the other party is still responsible for 50% of the accident and therefore 50% of an injury compensation claim. In short, the claim would be calculated by assessing the claim as a whole and then deducting 50% of the overall valuation of the claim.
The overall valuation of your claim, once liability has been settled, can be pretty straight forward. A medical report detailing the injuries sustained, the effects on day to day life, any ongoing symptoms, any relevant medical history, an opinion on how long you are likely to suffer from the symptoms, if on-going, and details of any treatment that is necessary, is obtained from an independent medical expert.
This is then reviewed by your solicitor and a valuation is placed on your claim based on the findings of the report. The compensation claimed for your injuries is called “general damages“. The report will be sent to you for your agreement and amendments can be made to the report if anything is incorrect.
You will also need to provide documentary evidence in respect of any other losses you have incurred as a result of the accident. These losses usually include travel expenses, medication expenses, damaged property, and more importantly (normally) any lost earnings; to name a few. These are referred to as your “special damages“.
Once the agreement of the medical report is received and all evidence in support of your special damages has been received, this can all be submitted to the insurer of the other side for their consideration. The total value or quantum of your claim can then be negotiated and/or agreed upon.
Once the value has been agreed for both your special and general damages, it will then be subjected to a 50% reduction. The other 50% doesn’t go to anyone – it is just that the insurers will only pay 50% of the value of your claim.
Therefore, even if you are partly responsible for an accident, you are still able to claim. It can be worth doing so as well especially if you have experienced severe whiplash which has had a significant effect on your life. Although you cannot obtain 100% of the value of your claim, you may still receive a sizeable sum once the deduction of 50% has been made.
We are specialists in dealing with whiplash injury claims so situations such as this are not uncommon to us, and more often than not, when a client approaches us for a claim for compensation, liability has not been settled.
We are extremely experienced in negotiating liability for the accident you have been involved in and for fighting for the best liability settlement available to you – as sometimes, it is not always clear cut who is at fault.
If you have been involved in an accident and injured as a result, please call us on our free claims line for some professional and legal advice on the type of liability settlement you are likely to receive.
