What Is The Personal Injury Claims Time Limit?

If you’ve suffered an injury from a road traffic accident (RTA) or an accident at work, you may want to know more about the personal injury claims process. You might also be wondering how to contact No Win No Fee lawyers in the UK and struggling to understand how to make a claim despite searching for No Win No Fee solicitors near you. Our guide will answer questions about the personal injury claims time limit as well important factors such as:

  • How long do I have to make a claim?
  • Can I run out of time to make a claim?
  • What are examples of personal injury?
  • What is a No Win No Fee solicitor?
  • How do personal injury claims work?
  • What falls under personal injury?
  • What does a personal injury claim cover?
  • How do No Win No Fee claims work?

Our advisors offer free legal advice and are available 24/7 so, if you have any questions or queries about making a No Win No Fee compensation claim, give them a call at a time that suits you. Our contact details are below.

  • You can call us using the button on this page.
  • Write to us using the Live Chat function on the right-hand side of your screen.
  • Contact us via our website.

To discover more about claim time limits, please read on.

personal injury claims time limit

What is the personal injury claims time limits?

Select a Section

  1. Proving Negligence In Personal Injury Claims
  2. What Is The Personal Injury Claims Time Limit?
  3. My Child Was Hurt In An Accident, How Long Do They Have To Claim?
  4. Can I Claim On Behalf Of Someone Else?
  5. How Do Claim Time Limits Impact The Personal Injury Claims Process?
  6. Connect With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
  7. Discover More About Personal Injury Law

Proving Negligence In Personal Injury Claims

Before looking into the personal injury claims time limit, you should establish if you’re eligible to claim.

Making a successful personal injury claim revolves around third-party negligence. From a legal perspective, certain third parties have a duty of care to you. This means they should take measures to protect your safety. Examples of third parties with a duty of care towards you include employers and those in control of a place that’s accessible to the public. Third-party negligence comes from them not adhering to their duty of care and consequently injuring you. You’d only be able to potentially make a successful claim if the below three requirements are met.

  • The third party you want to claim against must have a duty of care to you.
  • This duty of care must have been breached in some way.
  • This breach must have led to your injury.

If all three aren’t able to be proven in your situation, then you won’t be able to claim.

You don’t need to make a personal injury claim necessarily. There are other ways you can potentially seek compensation, as clarified on this government webpage. They include:

  • Writing a complaint letter to the third party.
  • Using mediation as a way to negotiate a settlement.

However, if you want to pursue a claim, our panel of personal injury solicitors could help you receive thousands of pounds in compensation.

What Is The Personal Injury Claims Time Limit?

The personal injury claims time limit specifies that you generally have three years to claim from the date of the incident. This means that you would need to begin claims, whether through a personal injury solicitor or alone, within this time period.

However, in instances where you may be suffering from industrial disease, for example, you might not always be aware that you’re injured. This is because the injury could be internal or take a period of time to progress to the stage where it’s a noticeable health issue. As such, you can also claim up to three years from the date of becoming aware that the injury was caused by someone else’s negligence.

So, if you don’t claim within three years of the incident or three years from the date you became aware of the injury, you might not be able to seek personal injury compensation. The piece of legislation clarifying all of this is Limitation Act 1980.

However, there are exceptions to these time limits. We look at these below.

My Child Was Hurt In An Accident, How Long Do They Have To Claim?

There are further factors to consider, however, regarding the personal injury claims time limit. For example, if your child suffered a ligament and tendon injury, they could technically have longer than three years to make a claim. The length of time they have to begin a claim would actually be based on how old they are. You see, if they do want to claim, they have three years from the date of their eighteenth birthday to begin proceedings. This is the case regardless of the age they suffered the injury. It doesn’t matter whether your child was twelve or seventeen; the same rule applies.

However, if your child wants to make a claim before their eighteenth birthday, they can do so if an adult acts as their litigation friend. Essentially, the litigation friend would be claiming on the child’s behalf. If the claim is successful and the child receives compensation, it will be awarded to them when they turn eighteen. In the meantime, it would be placed in a protected account.

Can I Claim On Behalf Of Someone Else?

Examples of people who can be a litigation friend, and so can make a claim on someone else’s behalf, include:

    • A guardian or parent
    • Family members or friends
    • A solicitor

As such, you can potentially claim on another person’s behalf if they don’t have the mental capacity to make a claim themselves. The three-year personal injury claims time limit only begins once they recover. Therefore, if they don’t recover, a litigation friend could claim on their behalf.

You could also be assigned as a litigation friend through the court if someone involved in the case requests that one be used, so long as you meet the required criteria.

This is detailed in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This clarifies such issues as how to confirm if someone lacks mental capacity.

How Do Claim Time Limits Impact The Personal Injury Claims Process?

Practicalities surrounding the personal injury claims time limit also need to be taken into account. Your claim needs to be made within three years of the incident happening. However, the more time your personal injury solicitor can gather relevant information regarding your claim, the better. As such, if, for instance, you see a solicitor with only a few months left to submit your claim, they may not take it as they might be unable to compile the relevant evidence in time.

Contacting a personal injury solicitor as quickly as you’re able to could be the difference between receiving compensation and coming away empty-handed.

Connect With A No Win No Fee Solicitor

If you decide to make a claim through our panel of solicitors, it’ll be under a Conditional Fee Agreement. This can also be called a No Win No Fee agreement. This means that:

      • Your personal injury solicitor will not request legal fees from you, either upfront or during the claims process.
      • For the payment of their legal fees, they will simply take a small, legally capped portion of your compensation once your claim has been settled.
      • They will not request legal fees from you if your claim is unsuccessful.

Our advisors offer free legal advice so, if you have questions like “Am I eligible to make a claim?” they can help you. They can give you a compensation estimate over the phone in just a matter of minutes. Contact us at a time that suits you using the contact details below.

      • Call us using the button at the top of the page.
      • Use our Live Chat service on the right-hand side of your screen to write to us.
      • Contact us through our website if, for example, you have more queries about the personal injury claims time limit.

Discover More About Personal Injury Law

For more useful information, please see below.

Broken a bone? If so, and you want more information about the healing process, refer to the NHS website.

The Department for Transport provides statistics on road traffic accidents across Great Britain.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports injuries, diseases, and dangerous occurrences at work through RIDDOR. You can read more information about that here.

Why not check out more of our personal injury claims guides below: