In personal injury claims, the phrase ‘pain and suffering’ describes a combination of both physical and emotional distress a victim suffers after an accident. But in reality, everyone experiences pain differently and no two injuries or accidents are the same.
When it comes to emotional distress, giving specific examples of how you’ve suffered will help strengthen your case. From our experience, a lot of emotional stress is caused or increased by financial strain after an accident – and that’s why we’ve put this post together. We want to help relieve the financial strain and make sure that you have a strong case for the compensation. This is because we believe that the first step on the road to recovery is to regain control of your life, and part of this is getting your finances in order.
Many people forget that the ‘reasonable costs’ are a fundamental part of any compensation claim. When we talk about ‘reasonable costs’ – we mean any cost that is a direct result of your personal injury. So that’s anything from the cost of paracetamol, to the taxi you might have to pay for to get your kids to school.
Our best advice is to keep a record of all these ‘reasonable costs’ – whether that’s in invoices, receipts or pay slips. A ‘paper-trail’ will make sure that we are able to recover all expenses related to your injury. To make things a little clearer, we’ve compiled a list of 5 ways you could be out-of-pocket following a personal injury:
Loss of earnings from employment
We’ll need wage slips or statements from your employer’s payroll department to prove your loss of earnings and build this into your compensation claim. This includes evidence of loss of overtime, bonuses and various other allowances. If you’re self-employed, we’ll need 3 years’ tax returns.
Medical expenses
Keep all receipts related to initial and on-going medical expenses. This includes travel expenses, for example, taxi fares for getting to and from hospital. If you’ve already paid for a course of treatment then you could be entitled to claim this back as part of your compensation. This includes any aids or vital equipment you’ve needed to help you recover from your accident and return to ‘normal life’.
Paying for care or help at home
If you’ve had to get extra care or support at home then you should include this in your claim. We can then build this cost into your compensation claim when we put your case together. You can also recover expenses where your injuries have stopped you from doing domestic duties. It’s important that your standard of life at home doesn’t drop dramatically as a result of your accident. These expenses include housekeeping, gardening and home maintenance. To build this into your claim you must keep all expenses on record.
Loss of leisure activities
If you have a gym or club membership and are tied into a contract which you are unable to use then you’re entitled to recover this cost as part of your compensation claim.
Damaged items
If any of your personal belongings were damaged in the accident then you could be entitled to claim for their replacements. This might include car seats if children were involved in a road traffic accident, motorcycle equipment such as a helmet or leathers, or even clothing that had been damaged.
If you have been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault, it’s important to know what you could be entitled to. You only get one chance to claim financially for a personal injury, so make sure you are aware of everything you could be compensated for. To speak to one of our personal injury team, contact us using the form below, or call us on 0131 555 7055.