How A Solicitor Values a Personal Injury Claim

When you have been injured in an accident one of the first questions you may want answering from your solicitor is ‘how do you value my claim?’ This will depend on the type of injury, the severity of it and how long you suffer for.

At the outset, we usually instruct a doctor to prepare a report into a client’s injuries. This will detail the injury suffered and advise how long it will take the client to recover. The expert may advise that the injury needs further examination from an expert from a different discipline e.g. Psychologist/ Pain Management Expert. If that is the case, then we will obtain further medical evidence as it is important that the injury is fully investigated before the case is settled.

If the client has not made a recovery, we advise that the case is delayed to see whether the client does make a recovery in line with the expert’s predictions. There is always the danger that if the client does not make a recovery within the timeframe then by settling too early the client has been under-compensated. However often clients just want to press ahead and settle their case. If they are the client’s instructions, then we are happy to do that albeit with the warning that it is against our advice!

Different injuries are valued differently. Solicitors use a Guide called The JSB Guidelines to help value a claim. This sets our various types of injury and the common awards made under each type of injury. The Guide has brackets and the more serious the injury the higher up the bracket and more the client is likely to receive in compensation.

If the client has several different injuries, then they will be calculated separately. So, for example today I had the opportunity to value a claim for a client who was involved in a head-on collision when he was a passenger in a vehicle.  He had a number of discrete injuries including a chest injury, pelvis injury, back injury, permanent scarring and headaches. According to my calculation his injury claim alone would be valued at around £25,000.

However, valuation is not an exact science. The reason for this is that each injury is unique in terms of its impact on the client. We do rely on the JC Guidelines and also case law but valuation can never be exact. As solicitors, we give the clients a guideline bracket as to what their injury will be worth. The case usually settles within that bracket.

As solicitors acting for clients, our aim is always to obtain the maximum amount of compensation for clients. We have tactics and techniques to do this. At Nayyars we are known for getting the highest settlements and we know how to do this.

If you come to Nayyars you can be rest assured that we will get you a high level of compensation.

Iqra Tahir
Paralegal