When most people consider the field of personal injury compensation they probably tend to imagine it revolves around people with minor whiplash claiming after having tripped over an uneven paving stone. Indeed, this kind of thinking has led to the idea of compensation being somewhat discredited, with many members of the public imagining it’s simply a means of people cashing in and taking advantage of the so called ‘compensation culture’. The truth of the matter, however, is a little bit more nuanced.
Compensation cases come about because someone has been injured and it wasn’t their fault. The overview of any accident doesn’t stop on the day of the accident itself but carries on into the future, looking at the ramifications of the injuries received and the detrimental effect they’ve had upon the victims’ life. If your life has been altered dramatically following an accident caused by someone else’s negligence than it’s only right that someone else, and not you, should pay the price for this. In many accidents, this price consists of immediate expenses such as travel costs and medical bills, as well as an amount to cover any days taken off work. In the case of more serious injuries, however, the actual financial cost may carry on into the foreseeable future.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident which wasn’t your fault, for example, and left needing on-going help with things like dressing and moving around, then it’s clearly unjust that you should have to pay for this help. A personal injury lawyer will be able to advise you as to exactly what you can claim for, and will make sure that you get every penny you deserve to cover permanent costs of this kind and items such as future lost earnings. Clearly, if you’ve been seriously injured then no amount of compensation can make up for your suffering, but it can go some way towards making the rest of your life as comfortable as it possibly can be.
