Criminal Injury Compensation Overseas: How the CICA, the British Embassy and travel insurance can help you make a claim for criminal compensation from a country outside the UK

Claiming Criminal Injury Compensation Overseas: Find out where your criminal injury must have happened for you to claim compensation from the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority, the assistance the CICA can give you in making an application in a foreign country and how to find out which countries around the world have criminal injury compensation schemes.

Where must your injury have occurred for you to make a compensation claim from the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority?

For you to make a compensation claim from the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority your injury must have occurred in Great Britain, which as you are aware is made up of England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own criminal injury compensation scheme.

Can you claim compensation if you receive a criminal injury in the European Union?

You should be able to claim compensation if you receive a criminal injury in a country which is a member of the European Union.

Each member country is required by European law to have in place a similar agreement to the scheme we have in the UK.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority generally will not pay compensation for injuries outside Great Britain (there can be some exceptions for terrorist attacks overseas), but will assist in helping you contact the correct authority in the European Union country and assist you in completing the application form, so that you can claim compensation using that country’s scheme.

Click compensation for crimes abroad to view the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority page explaining how the CICA can help you claim compensation for an injury abroad.

For example – imagine you are travelling in Spain and whilst on a train journey from Barcelona to Madrid you are assaulted and suffer significant injuries. You make all the proper reports to the local police and the hospital and on your return to the UK you decide that you wish to claim compensation for criminal injuries. Working out the system in Spain can be quite daunting so you contact the UK Criminal Injury Compensation Authority who are not able to pay you UK criminal compensation, but will help you contact the correct authority in Spain and help you fill out the Spanish application form.

TIP – your travel insurance will likely have legal protection cover which can fund an English speaking overseas lawyer to help you make your criminal injuries claim in a foreign country.

Criminal Injury Compensation Overseas

Are there any other countries that have a form of criminal injuries compensation scheme?

“Yes” – other countries outside of the European Union that have a form of criminal injury compensation scheme include Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Columbia, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Japan, Philippines, United Arab Emirates and the United States.

See the government website of overseas British embassies for an up to date list of the British Embassies across the world that could assist with knowing if a criminal injury scheme exists.

Criminal injury compensation overseas summary

In this article you have discovered why generally you can only make a compensation claim from the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority for injuries received in Great Britain; ways of finding out which other countries have a similar scheme and how the CICA can help you if you wish to make a criminal injury compensation claim from a country which is a member of the European Union.

How Much Criminal Injuries Compensation Can You Claim In Great Britain?

Now you know when and how to claim for criminal injuries abroad I suggest you:

See our criminal compensation article to find out how much criminal injury compensation you should be able to claim in Great Britain.