Damages Guides

Where you have an accident due to someone else's fault (referred to as a tort or tortious act) you are entitled to claim compensation.  The rules regarding what you can claim are very long and complicated.  However, in summary you can claim for any loss caused by a tortious act which is reasonably foreseeable and reasonably incurred.

Lawyers spend years learning all about what can be claimed and what cannot.  Our experience is that whenever we take over a case from another solicitor we find at least one item of damage that they have missed. 

The idea of the damages is to seek to restore the victim, so far as possible, to their pre-accident state.  Items of loss which are not financial, such as personal injury, can only be reflected by a money award. 

Lawyers often talk about a duty on a party to mitigate.  This is wrong in law.  There is no duty to mitigate, only a rule that you cannot recover losses incurred unreasonably.  The difference is important.  If the other side wish to allege you have incurred losses unreasonably it is up to them to prove it, not for you to disprove it.

Large compensation awards are rarely due to the injuries sustained.  They arise as a result of the consequences of the injuries.  Our injury guides show the amounts of compensation payable in personal injury claims.  However, large awards are usually as a result of amounts lost every year (such as loss of earnings, ongoing care etc...) which last over a large number of years.

A good lawyer is likely to bring a creative and open approach to a case, making them more receptive to considering unusual areas of loss and meaning that higher compensation is usually recovered.  Claims factories, where lawyers or para-legals (people without legal qualifications) are overburdened with too many cases, can often result in under-compensation.

2 extreme examples of how other firms of solicitors compare to us are as follows:

1. Client 1 came to us having been advised by his solicitors that his claim was worth £45,000.  They also advised him he had no ongoing claim for loss of earnings.  We established a considerable ongoing claim for loss of earnings and the case settled at just over £200,000.  They also paid all his legal costs.
2. Client 2 was advised by his solicitors that his claim, which they had messed up, was only worth £15,000.  By the time we came along it was too late to save his case, so we sued his former solicitors.  The case settled at over £200,000 and payment of all legal costs.

Use an expert.  Call us on 01296 662770.