The personal injury claim process can be confusing for any Romanian living in the UK. How to start a claim, what to expect during the process and understanding how a claim comes to an end are all helpful for making the process easier.
As a Romanian speaking solicitor based in London, we have outlined how the personal injury process works after you have contacted a solicitor to help you claim against an employer, a negligent driver or someone else.
Find Out Who Was Responsible
The first stage in the personal injury claim process is finding out who was responsible for your injuries. Without knowing what or who caused your injuries, it is impossible to work out who is liable. For example, your claim could be against:
- An irresponsible driver who caused the road accident that injured you.
- An employer who didn’t resolve unsuitable conditions at your place of work.
- Your hotel on holiday, whose negligence caused you to seriously injure yourself.
- A local authority that has caused you injury by failing to meet certain safety standards in public places.
Once we find out who is responsible for your injuries, we can start to formulate a plan and outline your claim process. Here at Remus Robu Solicitors, we have a team of Romanian speaking lawyers in London who are committed to finding out who might be responsible for your injury and building a claim around this liability. Once we find out who is responsible for your claim, we can start the claim process.
Pre-Action Tick List
This stage in the personal injury claim process is designed to help both parties – and their lawyers – gather information ahead of settling or heading to court. It helps both parties to decide whether the matter can be settled early. This can vary from case to case, but it usually includes:
- A letter of notification. This is a letter that you and your solicitor send to the other party to inform them that you are making a claim. The defendant must respond to the letter within 14 days of it being received.
- Medical treatment. At this stage, if the other party accepts responsibility, they can offer to pay for medical treatment. This will help your injuries and therefore help lower the compensation.
- Claim letter. This second letter outlines the details of the claim to the defendant, including when it happened and why they are responsible.
- Response letter. The person you are claiming against must respond to the claim letter within 21 days. They then have three months to find out whether they are responsible or not. By the end of the three months they must admit that they are at fault or state why they don’t think they are at fault.
- Document disclosure. Both parties have to reveal the evidence they have gathered.
- Medical assessment. You will have to be assessed by a medical professional to see if your injuries are true and how extreme they are.
If you are interested, the full rules of pre-action protocol are outlined by the UK’s Ministry of Justice.
Reaching A Settlement
Using the evidence you have gathered, your Romanian speaking lawyer will try to settle your claim if appropriate. Your lawyer will discuss this with you and make an offer based on how extreme your injuries are.
As an experienced Romanian law firm in London, we will assess all evidence that we have and only ever make a settlement offer if it is appropriate and agreed with you beforehand. If both sides in the case fail to reach a settlement agreement, then the claim will go to court.
Issuing Court Proceedings
If your claim is not settled before the trial date, it will go to court. It is not very often that claims make it this far.
Depending on the nature of your claim, it could go to one of three tracks:
- Small Claims Track – Cases valued up to £1,500 (up to £5,000 for road traffic accidents)
- Fast Track – Cases valued between £1,500 (£5,000 for road traffic accidents) and £25,000
- Multi-track – Cases valued over £25,000
All parties involved tend to prefer to settle the matter before the trial happens. This means that pretrial negotiations can continue at this stage.
If your claim does go to court, our team of Romanian speaking lawyers will be there to help you throughout the process. This includes walking you through what is happening and translating what is being said from English to Romanian where necessary. The case will be settled by the judge at the end of the hearing.
If you want to learn more about how to make a personal injury claim as a Romanian living in the UK or are looking for a Romanian lawyer in London to help you claim for an injury that wasn’t your fault, get in touch with our team of personal injury solicitors here. Or email us on office@remusrobusolicitors.co.uk.