How long does an accident at work claim usually take (to settle or go to court)? In other words, how long will it take to get compensation?
The answer is that it is impossible to say at the outset. It depends on the type and severity of the injury you suffered in the accident. A serious injury can take a long time to recover from and for the medical experts to assess. Sometimes, workplace accident victims may never fully recover from their injuries and require lifelong care and medical intervention.
In very brief detail, below we outline some things that will decide how quickly or slowly your claim will progress:
- The process of starting the claims process
- How long it takes to obtain the initial medical report on your injuries
- Whether liability is in dispute or not
- Calculating all the items of the claim and getting evidence of them.
- The need to wait, assess how your medical condition progresses and obtain further medical reports, as needed.
- Obtaining other specialist expert evidence.
- Going to court – waiting for court dates if the matter doesn’t settle without needing a court hearing.
- How proactive your accident at work solicitor is.
Here’s what 2 of our specialist accidents at work solicitors have to say about the length of time the average accident at work claim takes to conclude.
Natalie Green – Solicitor
“I would normally say that it’s quite difficult to give clients a timescale but that I can give them a better idea once I’ve established the liability position in around three months and/or when we’re in receipt of their medical report.”
Andrew Last – Solicitor
“I would say, on average, accident at work claims take around 18 months to conclude and to get our clients their compensation. In working out that average, though, it leaves out those accident at work claims that involve catastrophic injuries to our clients. The very nature of serious injury claims means that they involve numerous medical reports being obtained as well as reports from a variety of other types of expert witnesses. Consequently, these types of cases can take quite a number of years to conclude as they are extremely complex.”