How To Find Criminal Injury Lawyers

By Stephen Anderson. Last Updated 17th February 2023. This is our guide on how criminal injury lawyers could help you make a claim. Victims of violent crime can be awarded compensation for their injuries. However, a criminal injury claim can be confusing if you aren’t aware of the procedures involved. This article has been put together to aid you in having a better understanding.

Criminal injury lawyers

Criminal injury lawyers guide

A criminal injury solicitor could help you even further. The lawyers on our panel have made many claims like this in the past. They could work with you on a No Win No Fee basis.

We have avoided using legal jargon in this guide. Therefore, it should be easier for you to digest. However, get in touch if you have any questions. No issue is too small. We are here to help. Once we know more about your claim, we could put you in touch with one of the expert criminal injury lawyers on our panel.

You can get in touch with us at any point for more information and advice.

Select A Section

  1. Do I Need To Use Criminal Injury Solicitors Near Me?
  2. What Fees Do Criminal Injury Lawyers Charge?
  3. Check What Types Of Claim Solicitors Handle?
  4. Criminal Injury Lawyers – Claiming Within The Time Limit
  5. Criminal Injury Lawyers – How Can They Help Me?
  6. Calculating Criminal Injury Claims
  7. How To Find Criminal Injury Solicitors (CICA Solicitors)

Do I Need To Use Criminal Injury Solicitors Near Me?

When trying to claim for criminal injuries, lawyers may be able to assist you. However, you have no legal obligation to enlist the services of a solicitor that is based near you.

You are free to hire a criminal damage lawyer from anywhere in the country. Due to resources such as email and video calls, many aspects of a criminal injury claim can now be handled remotely.

Make sure you are comfortable with the lawyer you choose to work with. Some solicitors may be inexperienced in matters such as criminal injuries, which could hurt your chances of success.

The solicitors on our panel have handled many claims involving criminal injuries across the country. They have many years of experience in doing so. If you’d like us to connect you to one, get in touch with our advisors today.

What Fees Do Criminal Injury Lawyers Charge?

When you make a claim for compensation with a criminal injury lawyer on our panel, you might be offered a No Win No Fee agreement. This is a contract that sets out the conditions that need to be met before your solicitor requests payment. 

If your claim is not successful, you won’t be asked to pay your solicitor at all. A small, legally-capped percentage of your compensation is deducted in the event of a successful claim.

Speak to our advisors today to discuss to possibility of funding legal representation on this basis. You could be connected with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel. 

Check What Types Of Claim Solicitors Handle?

There is more than one kind of crime that can cause injuries. An experienced solicitor in this field will have handled a vast array of cases involving injuries sustained in violent crimes.

Some examples of claims that experienced criminal injury lawyers will be able to handle include:

This list is not exhaustive. For more information on the violent crimes that you could claim for, get in touch with our team today.

Criminal Injury Lawyers – Claiming Within The Time Limit

There is usually a time limit for starting a negligence claim. How long you have depends on whether you claim directly against the perpetrator or submit a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) instead.

If you are able to claim directly against the party responsible, then you will usually have three years to start a claim. The time limit applies from when the criminal incident occurred. If you are making your claim through the CICA, then you usually have two years to start a claim instead. In some circumstances, such as cases involving historic abuse, the time limit may work differently.

If you are able to go ahead with a claim, then it is your choice whether you get in touch with criminal injuries lawyers for support. An experienced solicitor who has worked on this type of claim before can offer you valuable guidance on the steps needed to make a successful claim. In the next section, we’ll explain more about how criminal injury lawyers can help and the benefits of using a criminal injury solicitor from our panel.

Criminal Injury Lawyers – How Can They Help Me?

When making a claim for your physical and mental injuries, criminal injury lawyers can help in a number of different ways, though you are not required to hire one in order to claim. The lawyers on our panel are trained to handle your circumstances with compassion. If you are claiming for criminal injuries, the lawyers on our panel can assist you throughout the process.

For example, they can help you during the process of gathering evidence. The solicitors on our panel have handled many similar claims in the past and will know how to proceed.

Get in touch today if you have any questions about how an injury lawyer could help you.

Examples of Evidence

As we have said, a criminal injuries solicitor can help you with gathering evidence and other necessary materials for your claim.

A claim through the CICA primarily requires two types of evidence:

  • A medical report
  • A police crime number

Criminal injuries solicitors could arrange a medical appointment for you to ensure you receive a medical report of your injuries.

Criminal injury lawyers could be able to advise you on special expenses you could be eligible to claim through the CICA and gather evidence for this. For example, payslips, receipts, bank statements and invoices could help you prove your claim for special expenses.

If you would like to learn more about how to claim for criminal injuries, or how lawyers could help you claim, please reach out to one of our advisers.

Calculating Criminal Injury Claims

The way in which compensation for criminal injuries is unique when compared with claims in other areas of law. This is because the CICA has its own tariff as outlined in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012. The tariff has a list of injuries with an assigned monetary value. 

You can claim for more than one injury. However, only the injury with the highest value is paid to you in full. The second and third most valuable injuries will then be added on and paid to you at a rate of 30% and 15%, respectively. You cannot be awarded for more than 3 injuries from this tariff. 

We have included some example figures from the CICA tariff in the table below. This way, you can see how much certain injuries can be worth in compensation. 

Edit
Awarded For Description Amount
Mental injury Disabling – must be confirmed by the diagnosis of a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist – lasting between 2-5 years £6,200
Mental Injury Permanent and seriously disabling – also must be confirmed by a professional £27,000
Neck burns Moderate £2,400
Neck burns Severe £16,500
Facial scarring Serious disfigurement £11,000
Brain damage Minor head injury – minimal, if any and lasting 28 weeks or more £1,500
Deafness Partial but permanent – some useful hearing remains, possibly with a hearing aid in both ears £6,200
Ear injury Partial loss of ear(s) £2,400
Sexual assault Minor physical sexual act(s) over clothing without penetration £1,000
Sexual assault A single incident of non-consensual penile penetration of the mouth, anus, or vagina £11,000

The CICA also has a separate tariff for victims suffering from certain other injuries. If, as a result of the incident, you have lost a foetus, contracted an STI, or become pregnant, then you could be awarded an additional payment that isn’t subject to the multiple injury reduction formula. 

In addition to the compensation for your injuries, you could also be awarded a figure known as special expenses. This can be a little more restrictive. These costs must be reasonable, necessary and incurred as a result of your injuries.

You are only eligible to apply for this if you have been unable to work for 28 weeks or longer. Many special expenses will be backdated to the date of the incident. However, if you are claiming back a loss of earnings, then this will only be paid from the 29th week onwards. 

For more information, get in touch with our advisors today. You could be connected with one of the criminal injury lawyers from our panel. 

How To Find Criminal Injury Solicitors (CICA Solicitors)

If you are seeking to make a claim through the CICA, solicitors could help. Criminal injury solicitors could provide their services under a type of No Win No Fee arrangement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

This means that your criminal injury solicitor typically won’t charge upfront for their services. They usually won’t ask you for any ongoing fees either. If your criminal injury compensation claim is a success, a success fee will be taken from your award. The law limits the amount that can be taken. Should your criminal injury compensation claim fail, then you usually won’t be asked to pay for your solicitor’s services.

You can call our advisors 24/7 to discuss your criminal injury compensation claim. If it seems eligible and you would like to proceed with our services, you could be put in contact with one of the criminal injury solicitors from our panel.

You can:

Learn More About This Subject

We have also included some links to additional reading material that you may find useful and informative when looking for criminal injury lawyers.

  1. The NHS has more information on help after rape and sexual assault.
  2. You can report a crime on the police.uk website.
  3. You can contact the Survivor’s Trust for additional support if you are a rape survivor.
  4. This guide of ours focuses on acid attack claims. 
  5. What are the indicators of sexual abuse?
  6. Look into the help and compensation available for rape victims.

Thank you for reading our guide on criminal injury lawyers.

Article by AI

Publisher ET