The rules for making a claim for personal injury compensation state that there is a period of 3 years from the date of an accident in which an injured party must register their claim. This time limit is called ‘limitation’. Should an injured party fail to register their claim within a 3 year time period, the claim will be statute barred and they will then be unable to seek compensation for their injuries.
An exception to this rule is for minors. A person under the age of 18 years at the time of their accident have until their 21st birthday in which they can register a claim. Another exception is for industrial diseases, where the limitation period is 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis. This is because industrial illnesses may take years to present. There are other very rare exceptions to the 3-year rule that may enable an individual to overturn the limitation limit. This would normally apply to individuals who were so seriously injured that they could not manage their own affairs and no carer commenced a claim for them.
In all circumstances, it is advisable to make a claim at the earliest opportunity and to not wait the full 3 years. This allows time to prepare a strong claim and therefore maximise the prospects of a successful outcome.
Whilst the 3-year period is there, in usual circumstances, claims companies and solicitors require a good 6-month period of the limitation to remain in order that full investigations can be completed, and correspondence can be entered into with the alleged liable party. Many people don’t know about the need to allow sufficient time to run their claim and often find that they have ruled themselves out by missing the 3-year deadline or contacting us with only a month or less to go. They usually find themselves statute barred and unable to claim.
Beating the claim deadline
Direct2Compensation never rule anything out and are happy to go the extra mile to assist clients in making genuine claims. Indeed, only this week we have managed to move mountains to assist a client who contacted us with only 4 days of his 3-year period remaining. In normal circumstances, this would not provide sufficient time to enable us to help. However, the injuries sustained were very serious – the client could yet lose the leg that was injured.
We immediately contacted one of our specialist solicitors to discuss the case. The value of the claim for the client was high and all parties wanted to help. Following the advice from our solicitor, we decided to take the unusual step of registering the claim in the courts before contact was made with the 3rd party. Clearly, we had to make speedy investigations beforehand to ensure that we knew the identity of the parties involved to ensure that we were not wasting our or the client’s time. Once done, we paid the fee and decided that this claim was worth risking our time, money and effort upon.
Taking risks and helping clients
We are happy to take such risks and put our money on the line to help such clients. Sure, if we win this no-win, no-fee claim for our client, we will get our money back plus fees, but that is not the point. We are a business with a keen ethical stance that ensures that we push the boat out to help individuals who are not always in a position to help themselves.
If you are in need of a reliable and approved claims management company to manage your accident compensation claim, look no further. We offer genuine peace of mind, honesty and a friendly caring service.
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