What Are General Damages?

General damages relate to your injuries and the pain and suffering caused by those injuries. No amount of money can make up for the pain and suffering of an injury, but for practical reasons, a valuation must be made.

General damages are valued based on medical evidence. Therefore, you will be required to attend a medical examination with an independent medical expert who specialises in the type of injuries you have suffered. Depending on the extent and severity of your injuries, you may be required to attend more than one examination. The medical expert then prepares what is called a Medico-Legal report which provides an opinion and prognosis period of the injuries you have suffered as a result of the accident.

The medical report/s will be used to calculate your general damages using the Judicial College Guidelines as well as consulting case law.

Personal Injury Claims – Judicial College Guidelines

The Judicial College Guidelines are used to help determine the value of a personal injury claim. The guidelines provide a bracket of figures which should be awarded for each type of injury and are broken down into sections according to different parts of the body and the severity of injury.

The brackets provide an approximate value of what you could be awarded for your injuries and are quite broad in their range. Therefore, once we have consulted the guidelines we will then consult relevant case law.

Personal Injury Claims – Case Law

Once we have identified the relevant bracket your injuries fall into, we will then consider case law to try and establish a more accurate valuation. This process involves comparing your injuries to previous cases where similar injuries were suffered and what those Claimants were awarded in Court. No case is ever the same, so we will research a number of different cases to try and find those which most closely resemble your injuries.

The third-party solicitors will also use these resources to value your claim, however, they will usually look to settle your claim on the lowest possible figure within the valuation. Valuing a claim is not exact science and therefore there is always scope for negotiations and we will always strive to achieve the best results.

How We Can Help

For further information regarding the above or if you would like to discuss a Personal Injury related query with one of the team, please call on freephone 0800 011 6666 or e-mail the team at legal@timms-law.com.