If you are involved in a collision as a driver, passenger, rider or pedestrian your most urgent priority will of necessity involve treatment of any injuries that you have sustained. Thereafter your attention will most probably turn to getting your vehicle back on the road and starting a car accident compensation claim for damages for your losses and injuries.

If you were not to blame for the accident, your injury lawyer should be able to expedite repairs to your vehicle even if you are only insured third party. If the vehicle is a write off, your lawyer should be able to get settlement of the full value of the vehicle within a few weeks of the accident. A lawyer can usually arrange hire cars paid for by the third-party insurers to cover your needs whilst your vehicle is off the road or until you receive your settlement.

Even if you are insured on a fully comprehensive basis you will still need to reclaim your lost policy excess from the negligent third-party driver and will need to go through the same car accident compensation claim procedure in order to claim damages for any personal injury.

A number of third party insurance companies automatically provide a courtesy car whilst your car accident compensation claim is in progress and your vehicle is being repaired, however by law you are entitled to a car of similar status to your own and if the insurers are not able to provide a similar vehicle then you are entitled to hire one and claim the cost from those insurers. Other costs relating to motor vehicles can also be claimed in this manner including storage and recovery charges or any reasonably incurred losses and expenses.

If you have been the victim of a car accident you have the right to make claims for emotional and physical pain and suffering, reduction of income and other financial losses. If you lose a loved one or someone you depend upon in a car accident that was not entirely their fault, then you can claim compensation as a dependent. To find out if you have a good case to make car accident injury claims do not hesitate to contact a personal injury lawyer who will give an early indication of their views on liability and the amount of any potential award.

Even if you think your potential claim is weak or if you think that you may have been fully or partly to blame you may benefit from advice about liability and contributory negligence which may enable blame to be apportioned ensuring the payment of partial compensation to you. If you’ve been injured in an accident do yourself justice and contact a personal injury lawyer.

For the sake of convenience, in car accident injury claims, compensation is divided into two particular categories – ‘special damages’ and ‘general damages.

 

Special Damages

relates to compensation for items that are generally easy to calculate accurately and involve little assessment. Special damages include wages losses and can also include predicted future loss, such as loss of income due to being unable to work. Loss of specific items that have a known value can also be claimed under this head – such as a car itself or the cost of any repairs to a vehicle that were the direct result of the crash.

 

General Damages

relates to compensation for items that are more difficult to value and must include a degree of assessment including pain and suffering. When dealing with damages in car accident injury claims a judge will look very closely at medical reports and the advice of expert witnesses prior to applying his own previous experience after consideration of other decided cases and will also consider guidelines from the Judicial Studies Board prior to making an award.