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Road Traffic Accident
Road traffic accident injuries vary in degree from relatively minor to catastrophic and even fatal. Nearly half a million people are injured or killed on our roads each year. The most common minor injury is whiplash which is a neck and shoulder injury caused by the sudden impact of a car ramming into your car. The other end of the scale is fatal accidents including death. This is why is right that claiming compensation should be available to anyone. This hasn’t always been the case though.
Before 1998 if you had a road traffic accident and wanted to claim compensation it was not such a straight forward process and it could have cost you a small fortune. If your income was below a curtain threshold you could have received legal aid to help. If your income was over that threshold you would have had no help whatsoever and we all know how expensive lawyers can be. Many people didn’t have the money up front so couldn’t claim which meant they missed out on compensation that was rightly theirs. In some cases thousands and thousands of pounds went unclaimed.
Since 1998 Conditional Fee Agreements’ have been in place. They are better known to most people as “No Win No Fee” agreements. Basically “No Win No Fee” agreements mean anyone can make a claim for compensation without any cost to them. Your lawyer is taking on the case without getting paid. Your lawyer will only get paid if they win the claim for compensation, then they will reclaim any costs from the losing parties insurance. This is the same for any expenses you incurred since the accident. This is great as it means you will get all of the compensation and also get paid back for any time of work, petrol expenses, damaged clothing etc.
Like any other accident claim your lawyers job is to prove that your were in no way responsible for the accident. Even if you were partly responsible you might still win an award. If the claim goes to court and the judge believes you were 25% to blame, you will still win compensation but the amount will be 25% short of the amount if you were totally not to blame. The type of aspects that will get looked at when it comes to road traffic accidents are driver behaviour, road conditions and the state of the vehicle at the time of the accident to name but a few. All of these will be used as proof that the accident occurred through no fault of your own.
If you are indecisive about making a claim then ask your self what you have to loose? It won’t cost you a penny so it won’t be money. It might be worth making a list of pros and cons if you really can’t decide. Claiming compensation for accidents that were not our fault is our legal and civil right. Making a claim is such a simple process; your lawyer does everything for you. All you have to do is fill out a form in the start of your claim and then just sit back and wait for your cheque. So what are you waiting, just justice served and get what is rightly yours.
