Perhaps you are reading this because you had an accident a while ago which was wholly (or partly) someone else’s fault.
You are wondering if it is now too late to make a claim for your injuries and other losses.
Please read on as I hope I can give you some useful pointers.
There are many reasons why you may not have seen about a claim so far:
You may have been concentrating on your recovery and getting the right treatment.
Perhaps you didn’t want to make a claim just for the sake of it. But now you realise your injury hasn’t healed as you expected and your losses (perhaps pay losses) are mounting up and putting you under strain.
Maybe you were injured at work and your employer was making up your wages, so you did not feel like making a claim. But then they stopped.
Whatever the reason, it may not be too late to claim. Don’t leave it any longer before taking advice though! Please feel free to contact us – we don’t charge for a quick chat on the phone and it might well prove very worthwhile for you. (Also, don’t be put off if you are already outside the time limit to use a legal expenses insurance you might have.)
Legal time limits in personal injury claims can be complex but I will give you just a few examples in the rest of this article.
Road Accidents, accidents at work and so on.
Most of these have a 3 year time limit for bringing a claim. This by an act of Parliament, the Limitation Act 1980. In fact, 3 years is the most common time limit of all in personal injury claims.
Please don’t leave it until the 3 years is almost up though! There is often a fair bit of work to be done within the 3 years and, in any case, memories fade so the quicker you take action, the better.
Sometimes the 3 years can be extended. Just one example is:
Children and Young Persons
What if a child or young person has an accident when they are under the age of 18 and a claim isn’t completed for them by the time they reach 18? They can usually then claim in their own name, starting with a fresh time limit of 3 years from their 18th birthday. This means that they have until they are 21 to either complete their claim or start court proceedings.
(Not long ago we completed a claim for a young woman who had suffered serious injuries from a dog bite when she was a toddler. When she reached 18, she wanted to bring her own claim. She instructed us and we were able to bring a successful claim for her.)
Having said all that, it is important to say that the 3 year (sometimes extendable) time limit does not apply in all cases. Here are just a couple of examples with shorter time limits:
Aircraft
Accidents while on an aircraft have a shorter time limit, 2 years. This is under the Carriage of Goods by Air Act 1961 which brings certain international conventions into our law.
This does not just include accidents which take place on board an aircraft but also accidents which occur in the process of embarking (which includes everything beyond the airport check-in procedure) and disembarking.
There are also other claims which you might not necessarily think about. For instance, in 2009 the Court of the Appeal held that accidents in the course of rides in hot air balloons also come under the 1961 Act and so have a 2 year limit as well. (Laroche v Spirit of Adventure (UK) Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 12)
What is more, this shorter 2 year period is not extendable. So, for instance, a claim brought for a child has the same time limit as an adult claim.
Ships
A 2 year time limit also applies to many accidents which occur at sea. This time the relevant law is under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.
To confuse things, some accidents which occur at sea may have a 3 year time limit and others may possibly have a 2 year limit which is extendable in some circumstances! Obviously, the safe course is to assume that any accident happening on the water has a 2 year limit, which cannot be extended, and to take legal advice promptly in every case.
To summarise then, it is always wise to take legal advice as soon as possible about any possible accident claim. As I mentioned above, please feel free to contact us: a quick chat on the phone costs nothing and may prove very worthwhile – even if your accident happened a while ago!