The UK Occupational Illness Solicitors Network operates nationwide and will deal with a personal injury compensation claim using the no win no fee scheme. Damages are paid in full with absolutely no deductions and there is no need to finance your case as it proceeds. If the case is lost you still pay nothing. If after talking to us you decide not to take matters further then you are under no obligation to do so and you will not be charged for our advice.
The claimants damages are valued according to what can reasonably be described as one of the black arts with no sensible scientific formula or logical approach. Basically, if the party’s cannot come to an agreement on what injuries and losses are worth and settle the claim on a voluntary basis before the issue of court proceedings then the matter is left for a judge to decide after listening to representations from both parties or their lawyers. Most claimant solicitors will try to impress the sum to award on a judge by referring to case law and previous judgements that support their contentions however the solicitor for the defendants or more usually their insurance companies will attend court armed with a contradictory set of court reports from compensation claim cases that have been decided earlier and which will inevitably show lower figures than those put forward by the claimants solicitors.
One of the lesser known effects of the internet is that it has enabled barristers to trawl for bizarre and lesser known reported cases and subsequently present them to a court as authorities. It is a sad fact that these cases ever see the light of day however most of the stranger judgements are filtered out from the record of written reports by judicious editors of the various journals and court report digests. The law does however give the judge a wide discretion in the award of damages and in addition to considering old or previously decided cases he is also entitled to call upon his own experience both as a judge and as a lawyer for claimants and defendants before he qualified as a judge. To further complicate compensation claim settlements the government effectively intervenes in the whole process by virtue of the Judicial Studies Board which produces ‘independent’ guidelines intended to help judges to decide the value of awards and backs this up with a publication called ‘The Judicial Studies Board Guidelines’.
Damages for personal injury are divided into two main categories more for the convenience of the court and the lawyers than for any benefit it may confer on the claimant. Compensation for items that can be calculated accurately is called special damages and includes things such as wages losses and general expenses incurred as a direct result of the injury. Compensation for items which cannot be accurately calculated and which involve a degree of assessment by the judge are called general damages and include items such as pain and suffering and loss of any previous congenial employment. In addition to the basic payments under these two heads it may also be possible to claim interest by applying a complicated court formula.
