How long will it take for your solicitor to make a neck and back injury claim in the UK
Accident Victim Question About How Long Your Solicitor Takes To Settle Your Personal Injury Claim
I am badly suffering from both my neck and back. My question is how long it normally takes to make a compensation claim for such injuries?
Personal injury Solicitor Response
There are a number of factors that determine how long it will take to make a claim for your neck and back injury. These include:
1. Determining legal liability (negligence or fault)
Neck And Back Injury Claim
For a claim to succeed your solicitor must prove that someone (or some business) was at fault for your accident (other than yourself). The burden of proof is on the Claimant (person making the claim) to show fault and the process will largely depend on the type of accident you experienced.
For example – if you were a car driver and you suffered injury in a collision with another vehicle, the other car driver must be shown to have made the driving error that led to your accident. The Highway Code can largely be relied upon to determine the driving error that occurred.
Click car accident claim to see the process of determining fault in a road traffic accident.
If you have suffered an accident at work – the process of showing your employer was at fault (negligent and/or in breach of statutory duty) will require different legal reasoning than in a road accident.
Click accident at work claim to see the process of showing employer fault.
Therefore, how long your claim for neck and back injury will take can depend on the type of accident, whether the party at fault accepts liability and if not how readily your solicitor adduce evidence to persuade the other party to accept liability
2. The extent of your neck and back injuries
Even if the person at fault has accepted liability – your solicitor must be able to establish how much your claim is worth before your neck and back injury claim can conclude.
To do this – your solicitor will instruct an independent medical expert to produce what is known as a medico legal report setting out the extent of your injuries with a final prognosis setting out how long it will likely take you to recover fully or any ongoing disabilities from your neck and back.
If your neck and back injuries were relatively minor a medical expert should be able to produce the requisite report a few months after your accident. If however your neck and back injuries are more severe then the medical expert will need to wait a much longer time period following your accident to give an accurate prognosis. This might be dependent on some surgical procedure first taking place by treating doctors.
So in determining how long your neck and back injury claim will take – the more severe injuries you have the longer your claim will likely have to take to finalize the independent medical expert report.
3. Remember the statutory limitation period to commence your claim
The time period that your solicitor might take to settle your claim is very different than the statutory limitation period you have to commence a claim a court. Typically – you have three years from the date of your accident to commence your claim at court before it is too late to claim and your claim is considered statute barred.
Click motor vehicle accident to see our article explaining the the three year limitation period with exceptions to the three year rule.
Examples of how long neck and back injury claims can take to settle
A simple road accident or work injury claim causing modest neck and back injury when the party at fault accepts liability – will likely take: between 6 months – 12 months.
A road accident or work accident when the party at fault accepts liability, but injuries are more severe – will likely take: between 12 months – 2 years.
A road accident or work accident when liability is disputed and the neck and back injuries are severe will likely take: between 2 years – 4 years.
Discussing how long your neck and back injury claim might take with a specialist personal injury solicitor
The best way to have an estimate of how long your neck and back injury claim might take is to discuss your accident with a specialist solicitor.
Click how long to make a neck and back injury claim to discuss your claim with Kevin Bolton in person or another specialist personal injury solicitor.
