Making a personal injury claim following a criminal attack
When making a personal injury claim following a criminal attack, our personal injury solicitors, who have an excellent success rate, will provide you with free legal advice and inform you of your options. They may recommend that you pursue your claim via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
In order to make a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) you must have suffered either a physical or psychological personal injury as a result of a criminal activity within England, Wales or Scotland. Read more about what a personal injury is.
Your personal injury must be of a certain severity to make a claim through CICA. The types of personal injury that they deal with include head injuries, neck injuries and leg injuries. Read more about types of personal injury.
Can I make a claim?
The following guidelines can help you to judge whether you are entitled to make a criminal injury claim via CICA:
Conditions under which you can make a personal injury claim following a criminal attack:
- You have been a victim of a crime of violence, or injured in some way covered by the scheme, and physically and/or mentally injured as a result.
- You were in England, Wales or Scotland at the time the injury was sustained.
- You have been injured seriously enough to qualify for at least the minimum award available under the scheme.
- You were a dependant or relative of a victim of a crime of violence who has since died.
- You reported the incident personally to the police as soon as possible after it happened.
- You sent your application so that CICA received it within 2 years from the date of the incident causing your injury.
Conditions under which you cannot make a personal injury claim following a criminal attack:
- You were injured before 1 August 1964.
- You have already applied for compensation in respect of the same criminal injury under this or any other scheme operating in Great Britain.
- Your personal injury occurred before 1 October 1979 and you and the person who injured you were living together as members of the same family.
How much compensation can I expect?
The most regular compensation awards range from £1,000 to £500,000 with the maximum amount awarded via the CICA being reserved for the most catastrophic personal injuries such as brain damage or spinal cord injury. Read more about catastrophic injuries.
The amount of compensation that you receive is determined by a 25 level criminal compensation structure, ordained by the government. This acts like a criminal compensation calculator where you receive a percentage of compensation according to the extent of your injury and the number of specific injuries to any one particular body part.
For example, if you are claiming for more than one injury to your head, you will receive 100% compensation for the major injury, 30% for the next major injury and 15% for the next:
A typical award for a blow to the head would be £3,025 broken down as follows:
- Injury 1 - skull fracture not requiring an operation - £2,500 (of which you receive 100%)
- Injury 2 - scarring resulting in minor disfigurement - £1,250 (of which you receive 30%)
- Injury 3 - strained neck with pain for 6-13 weeks - £1,000 (of which you receive 15%)
For more information about CICA, visit www.cica-criminal-injuries-compensation.co.uk
Make a personal injury claim following a criminal attack today
If you have suffered a personal injury as a result of a criminal attack, you may be able to make a compensation claim and this is where we can help.
The Claim Solicitors is a specialist personal injury law firm and we are highly experienced at representing individuals who pursue such cases.
As we work on a no win no fee basis we will strive to protect you from all costs, so whether you win or lose we won't charge you a penny for our time. Read more about no win no fee.
Making a personal injury claim with us couldn't be simpler, just call our friendly 24-hour claim team on 0800 197 32 32 today.
