By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 11th January 2024. When you or a loved one are involved in a road traffic accident that was caused by somebody else, you’d be well within your rights to seek compensation for your injuries. The question is, how do you prove an injury after a car accident? Throughout this guide we’ll explain what you can do to improve your chances of receiving compensation by providing the right evidence to support your claim. We’ll look at how you go about proving an injury, what you should do in the event of an accident and how much compensation you could receive for your injuries.
Injury after car accident
Accident Claims UK offers free advice on personal injury claims and a no-obligation assessment of the claim too. Furthermore, if our solicitors agree to take on your claim, it’ll be on a No Win No Fee basis. Therefore, if you’re ready to discuss your claim right away, please call our specialists on 0800 073 8801 today.
Alternatively, if you’d like to know more about the types of personal injury claim evidence you can provide, please continue reading.
Choose A Section
- Evidence Which Could Help You Prove An Injury After A Car Accident
- Additional Personal Injury Evidence In Car Accident Claims
- Who Is Liable For Injuries Caused By A Car Accident?
- Car Accident Compensation Claim Payouts
- No Win No Fee Claims For Injuries Caused By Car Accidents
- How Do I Make A Car Accident Injury Claim?
- How We Could Help You Prove An Injury After A Car Accident
- Talk To Accident Claims UK
- Essential Links
Evidence Which Could Help You Prove An Injury After A Car Accident
If somebody is injured in a car accident, the police will usually be in attendance. If that’s the case, you could use the police report as evidence for your car accident claim. As the police aren’t medical professionals, their report won’t necessarily be the best proof of an injury.
Therefore, other evidence you could provide includes:
- Medical records from a GP or your local accident and emergency department.
- Photographs of any visible injuries.
We would strongly recommend that you visit a GP or accident and emergency department following a car accident no matter how minor your injuries are. That’s because not all symptoms are immediately obvious, especially if they’re being masked by adrenaline. Medical records are the strongest personal injury evidence you’ll be able to obtain so please take the time to visit a doctor.
You could receive a higher compensation payment if you’re able to provide personal injury evidence that proves how much suffering was caused by your injuries.
Additional Personal Injury Evidence In Car Accident Claims
As well as being able to prove an injury after a car accident, you could collect other evidence to prove that the accident actually occurred. Without it, the other driver involved could suggest that your injuries didn’t occur in a car accident. Of course, if the police attended the scene of an accident their report could be used as evidence that the accident took place, but you might need further evidence to prove who was at fault.
Therefore, following any road traffic accident, try to:
- Swap details with the other driver. Get their name, address, contact number, insurers name and vehicle registration number. Remember not to admit liability at the scene of the accident or to apologise.
- Take photographs at the scene of the accident. Where it is safe to do so, try to do this immediately and before any vehicles are removed as once the scene has been cleared, proving what happened can become trickier.
- If there were any witnesses to the accident, gather as many details from them as possible. Also, ask them to write a stamen of what they saw.
- See if any vehicles had a dashcam fitted. If so, try to obtain copies of the footage. You could also check if the area was covered by any type of CCTV.
- Finally, take a moment to write down what happened, the location, the time, the road conditions and the weather conditions. It can be very easy to forget details as time goes by.
While the list above might seem like a lot of work, the more evidence you can provide, the better. It could make the difference between winning your claim or losing. Also, it could affect the amount of compensation you’re awarded.
Who Is Liable For Injuries Caused By A Car Accident?
If you were injured after a car accident, you may be considering making a personal injury claim. However, your claim would have to meet specific eligibility criteria to be valid.
You would need to prove that another road user breached the duty of care they owed you and that this breach caused you to be injured in a car accident.
Every road user has a duty of care towards other road users. They must use the roads in a way that avoids causing harm to themselves or other road users. Also, they must adhere to the Road Traffic Act 1988 and follow the rules and guidance in the Highway Code.
To learn more about the car accident claim process, and to check the eligibility of your case, you can contact one of our advisors.
How Much Time Do I Have To Make A Car Accident Claim?
If you’re eligible to make a personal injury claim after a car accident, you need to be aware of the time limits in place for such claims. Under the Limitation Act 1980, you would normally have three years from the date of the accident to make your claim. However, there are some exceptions to this.
For example, if a child were injured, this three-year limitation period would pause until they reached 18. During the pause, an appropriate adult could launch a claim on their behalf as a litigation friend. If no claim was made during this time, the child will have three years to start their own claim once they turned 18.
Exceptions also apply to those who lack the mental capacity to make their own claim. In these cases, the limitation period is frozen indefinitely. Again, during this period, a litigation friend could claim on their behalf. If no claim is made and they regain this mental capacity, they will have three years from the date of recovery to start legal proceedings.
To learn more about the time limits when claiming for an injury after a car accident, you can contact our team of advisors.
Car Accident Compensation Claim Payouts
The amount you could receive for a successful claim for being injured after a car accident could vary. This is because the specific factors of your case will be taken into consideration, such as the type of injury you suffered, its severity and what treatment is required.
Typically, however, you could receive general damages and special damages as part of your compensation settlement for a successful car accident claim. General damages is the head of claim that compensates you for the injuries you’ve suffered and the pain and suffering they have caused you.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) could provide insight for those calculating such payouts. This document provides guideline compensation brackets for a range of injuries. We have created a table with figures from the JCG that was released in 2022. However, we should note that this is only guidance and that the first figure in the table is not from the JCG.
| Type of Injury | Severity | Range | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple severe injuries with associated financial costs and losses. | Severe | Up to £500,000+ | A combination of severe injuries causing significant pain and suffering with financial costs such as medical expenses or loss of earnings. |
| Neck Injury | Severe (a)(i) | In the region of £148,330 | Injuries causing incomplete paraplegia or spastic quadriparesis with permanent impact. |
| Hand Injury | Serious | £55,820 to £84,570 | Serious loss of function in both hands an permanent cosmetic disability. |
| Hand Injury | Moderate | £5,720 to £13,280 | Penetrating wounds, crush injuries and deep lacerations are included in this category |
| Leg Injury | Serious | £39,200 to £54,830 | Serious compound fractures or injuries to ligaments or joints causing prolonged treatment and instability |
| Leg Injury | Less serious | Up to £11,840 | Simple tibia or fibula fractures or soft tissue injury |
| Arm Injury | Severe | £39,170 to £59,860 | Serious fractures in one or both arms resulting in a significant disability. |
| Arm Injury | Less Severe | £6,610 to £19,200 | Simple fractures of the forarm. |
| Shoulder Injury | Moderate | £7,890 to £12,770 | Injuries such as frozen shoulder or soft tissue injuries lasting more than 2-years. |
| Whiplash Tariff | 2(1)(b) | £4,345 | A whiplash injury with a psychological injury, lasting more than 18 months but not more than 24 months. |
| Whiplash Tariff | 2(1)(a) | £4,215 | A whiplash injury alone that lasts more than 18 months but not more than 24 months. |
As mentioned, you could also receive special damages if you make a successful personal injury claim after you were injured in a car accident. Special damages is the head of claim that compensates you for financial costs and losses caused by your injuries. These could be:
- Medical expenses – If you have incurred prescription costs or had to pay for over-the-counter pain relief medication, for example.
- Travel expenses – If you have incurred travel costs getting to medical appointments or to see your solicitor, such as taxi fares.
- Loss of income – If you have lost out on pay because your injuries rendered you unable to work for a time.
- Care costs – If you have had to pay for care at home due to your injuries.
You will need to present evidence of these financial losses in order to claim for them under special damages. Evidence could include payslips, invoices and bank statements.
To get a personalised estimate of your car accident injury payout or learn more about the car accident claim process, please contact an advisor.
Will The Whiplash Reform Programme Affect My Claim?
The introduction of the Whiplash Reform Programme changed how certain road traffic accident claims are made in England and Wales. You will now need to make your claim via a different avenue if you suffered an injury valued at £5,000 or less as a passenger or driver of a vehicle who is over the age of 18. This includes whiplash and minor soft-tissue injuries.
Your whiplash injuries will now also be valued in line with the tariff set out in the Whiplash Injuries Regulations 2021. These are fixed amounts, and you could find some examples of them in our table above. Any additional injuries you have suffered that are not covered by this tariff will be valued traditionally.
To find out what avenue you should take when making your car accident claim, you can contact one of our advisors.
No Win No Fee Claims For Injuries Caused By Car Accidents
A major worry when making a compensation claim is the cost of hiring a legal team. That’s why our solicitors offer to work on a No Win No Fee basis for all claims they take on. We believe it enables more people to claim and greatly reduces the stress and financial risk involved with a claim.
When you’re happy to proceed, and our solicitors are happy that you have a strong case because you’re able to prove an injury after a car accident, you’ll be provided with a Conditional Fee Agreement (or CFA).
A CFA is another name for a No Win No Fee agreement. It’s really important because it clearly states that you only have to pay your solicitor’s fees if they win you compensation. In cases where compensation isn’t awarded, the solicitor’s fees don’t get paid.
However, when the case is won, the CFA will explain what level of ‘success fee’ you’ll pay. This is a deduction from your compensation to cover the solicitor’s work. By law success fees can be no higher than 25%.
As the success fee is taken from your compensation, you don’t have to have the funds available to pay the solicitor yourself.
If you’d like to know if we can help you prove an injury after a car accident on a no win no fee basis, please call an advisor today.
Now you’ve read this guide about how to prove an injury after a car accident, we hope you’re ready to start your claim today. If so, you can contact us using any of the following methods:
- Calling our team of specialist advisors on 0800 073 8801.
- By emailing office@accidentclaims.co.uk with details of your car accident.
- Using the live chat feature to discuss your claim whenever it suits you.
- Or you could fill in our online claim form to arrange a call back at a convenient time.
Essential Links
Thanks for taking the time to read our guide. For your information, here are some more guides, links and external resources which you might find useful.
Accident Advice – Information from the government website about what to do if you’re involved in a road traffic accident.
Whiplash Symptoms – This guide from the NHS explains how whiplash is diagnosed, how to manage it and what treatment is available.
The Motor Insurers Bureau – The MIB are an insurance industry scheme that means it’s possible to claim compensation if the other driver wasn’t insured or if you’re involved in a hit and run accident.
Car Accident Claims – A guide that covers all different types of car accident claims. This one isn’t just focused how to prove an injury after a car accident.
Whiplash Injury Claims – This guide provides information on how you can prove a whiplash injury and the amounts of compensation that are possible.
Fatal Road Accident Claims – A guide that explains how a loved one could claim compensation following a fatal road traffic accident.
If there is any further information that you require, please contact an advisor. We’ll happily answer any questions you might have.
Thank you for visiting us today and reading about how to prove an injury after a car accident.