You may have a personal injury claim if another person or organisation was legally responsible for protecting you against the relevant risk, failed to take the care required, and caused an injury or illness that resulted in a recoverable loss. An accident, an apology or a diagnosis alone does not establish every part of that case. Equally, an insurer's rejection, an incomplete accident book or your own possible contribution does not necessarily end it.
This guide addresses the initial assessment of a civil injury claim in England and Wales. It helps you organise what happened, identify the questions that remain unanswered and prepare an efficient first discussion with a solicitor. It is general information, not a decision on the merits of your circumstances. Criminal compensation schemes, overseas accidents and some transport claims require a different assessment.
The practical starting point is a four-part evidence file: the incident, the alleged failure, the medical consequences and the losses. Record uncertainties as uncertainties. The aim is to find out whether the evidence supports a claim, not to force an event into a promising-sounding category.
Start with the decision you actually need to make
Someone considering a claim often asks, “Was the accident my fault?” That can be too narrow. A better opening question is: “What needs investigating before anyone can sensibly say whether I have a claim?” An event may involve several parties, more than one cause and documents you have not yet seen. A brief account can justify further investigation without justifying a promise of compensation.
Separate three decisions. First, is there a plausible legal basis for a claim? Second, can evidence establish that basis? Third, is a particular firm willing and able to undertake the work on agreed terms? A positive answer to one does not guarantee a positive answer to the others. A firm may decline because of its capacity, practice specialism, a conflict or the economics of the case, rather than because the claim is legally impossible.
Your immediate priorities may also differ from the eventual damages claim. You might need treatment, an accurate accident record, preserved CCTV, an employment adviser or urgent limitation advice. Say which concern matters most now. If you cannot work and a recording may be overwritten tomorrow, those are two different tasks with different urgency. Neither should disappear inside a general request to “start a claim”.
An initial enquiry should therefore produce a clear next action: accepted instructions, a request for specified information, a referral or a refusal with an explanation. An automated acknowledgement is not confirmation that a solicitor is protecting your position. Ask who is responsible for the next step and whether any deadline has been assessed.
Duty and breach: identify the responsibility and the alleged failure
What relationship connects you to the proposed defendant?
A driver, employer, occupier, clinician and product producer do not all owe precisely the same obligations. The applicable rules depend on the relationship, activity and circumstances. Start with facts that identify the relationship: who employed you, who controlled the premises, who provided treatment, who drove the vehicle or who supplied the product. A trading name on a sign may not identify the correct legal entity.
It is not necessary to write a legal pleading before speaking to a solicitor. Useful first information is usually more ordinary: a booking confirmation, payslip, receipt, appointment letter, vehicle registration or photograph of the business sign. Preserve the document as it existed at the time. A business changing its website or trading name later can make reconstruction harder.
Duty of care is not a universal rule that anyone nearby must prevent every injury. Established legal relationships and the distinction between causing harm and failing to prevent someone else's harm can matter. The Supreme Court's decision in Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police explains why duty questions must be approached through the relevant principles and authorities, rather than an assumed one-size-fits-all test.
What, specifically, should have happened differently?
Replace “they were negligent” with the alleged failure you want investigated. For a delivery-yard injury, that might be whether pedestrians and reversing vehicles were adequately separated. For a shop fall, it might be the condition of the floor and the inspection system. For a treatment concern, it could be a particular missed investigation and whether that omission affected the outcome. These are allegations to assess, not findings established by describing them.
The strongest question usually concerns a specific precaution, decision or system. Ask what information was available before the injury, what action was reasonably required and whether that action was taken. Hindsight can make a risk appear more obvious than it was. Conversely, a signed training sheet may say little about whether the actual task was planned or supervised safely.
Record both supporting and contrary facts. If warning signs were present, note where they stood and whether they related to the hazard. If you received instructions, record what they were and how the work was actually performed. If a staff member helped afterwards, distinguish that assistance from anything they said about prior knowledge. A sympathetic conversation is not necessarily an admission of legal liability.
Who held the relevant records?
Write a short ownership map. CCTV might belong to a neighbouring shop rather than the defendant. A risk assessment could be held by a site operator while your employment contract sits with an agency. A hospital's clinical records and a private provider's booking documents may sit in separate systems. Identifying likely custodians gives a solicitor somewhere concrete to direct preservation and disclosure requests.
Do not trespass, impersonate another person or access a workplace system without permission to obtain material. Tell the solicitor what you believe exists, where it may be held and why it could matter. A lawful request made promptly is more useful than a document obtained in a way that creates a separate problem.
Causation: connect the alleged failure to the injury
A sequence is not necessarily a causal explanation
“I developed symptoms after the incident” is important information, but it may leave medical and factual questions unresolved. A claim needs a legally sufficient connection between the relevant failure and the harm for which compensation is sought. Some cases involve straightforward physical impacts; others involve deterioration, delayed diagnosis, repeated exposure or several possible causes. The approach must fit the actual claim.
Prepare a chronology rather than a conclusion. Include what you felt immediately, what developed later, when you first sought care and what you reported at each appointment. If your recollection differs from a record, preserve both and explain the discrepancy. Do not rewrite earlier notes to make every account appear identical.
Medical records can establish attendance, symptoms and treatment. An independent report may be needed to address whether the event caused or worsened a condition, how long the consequences are likely to last and what treatment is reasonable. Under Civil Procedure Rule 35.3, an expert's duty is to help the court on matters within their expertise. The expert is not there to adopt whichever account produces the highest award.
Previous symptoms are part of the assessment
Tell the solicitor about relevant earlier injuries, treatment, limitations and time off work. A pre-existing condition does not automatically prevent a claim. The question may be whether the incident caused a new injury, aggravated symptoms, accelerated a problem or made no material difference. Concealing the earlier history prevents a reliable assessment and can seriously damage credibility.
A practical comparison uses three periods: your usual function before the event, the early period afterwards and your current function. Describe tasks rather than broad labels. “I walked to work for twenty minutes without stopping” is more informative than “I was completely fit”. “I resumed the walk but need two rests” is more informative than “I cannot walk properly”. Record assistance, adaptations and good days as well as difficult ones.
Avoid deciding the medical answer yourself. You can provide accurate observations without diagnosing why they occurred. Likewise, do not assume that a later scan proves every symptom came from the incident. The treating clinician and any independent expert need the full clinical picture.
The claim may concern an additional injury, not the whole illness
This distinction is especially important when an existing disease or injury would have caused difficulties anyway. A treatment delay claim, for example, may concern the avoidable deterioration attributable to the delay rather than the underlying condition itself. A workplace event may temporarily worsen a longstanding back problem. The correct comparison is fact-sensitive and may require specialist evidence.
For your initial file, list the problem you already had, the change you noticed and the evidence that could help distinguish them. Keep language measured: “The pain spread to my leg after the incident” describes an observation; “The incident permanently damaged a nerve” asserts a medical conclusion that may not yet be established.
Loss: identify what the injury changed
Injury consequences and financial losses answer different questions
The assessment considers the injury's effects and any recoverable financial consequences. These should not be collapsed into a single online calculator figure. A person can suffer genuine pain without losing wages; another person with a similar diagnosis may also lose earnings, need assistance and incur treatment or travel costs. The evidential work is different for each category.
At the enquiry stage, record categories before trying to value them. Note absence from work, reduced hours, sick pay, treatment payments, travel, damaged personal belongings and help with ordinary tasks. Ask a solicitor which items may be recoverable and what evidence is needed. Do not assume that every inconvenience has a separate financial value or that every payment you made will be repaid.
For each expense, preserve the date, amount, supplier, reason and payment evidence. If the receipt is missing, identify what remains: an appointment record, bank entry, email confirmation or duplicate invoice. Missing paperwork may make proof more difficult, but it is not a reason to invent a receipt or automatically abandon the item. Explain the gap and let the solicitor assess the available evidence.
Record unpaid help without turning it into an invented invoice
A relative may have helped you dress, cook, shop or manage essential household tasks. Keep a factual record of who helped, what they did, how long it took and what assistance you already received before the incident. This allows the solicitor to consider whether a care or assistance claim is appropriate and how it should be presented.
Distinguish active assistance from ordinary companionship. If a family member visited for three hours but spent twenty minutes preparing a meal you could not prepare, record those facts separately. If two relatives attended together, avoid recording the same task twice unless both were genuinely required. The purpose is an accurate account of additional need, not the largest possible total.
Do not ask relatives to sign a statement they have not read or cannot understand. A dated, honest record is better than a polished retrospective narrative that conceals uncertainty. If entries were reconstructed later from messages or diaries, say so and identify those sources.
Keep payments and claimed losses separate
Sick pay, insurance payments, benefits and other assistance may affect how losses are calculated or accounted for. Their treatment is not identical. Provide the actual award letters, payslips and policy wording rather than guessing whether a payment is deductible. The solicitor needs to prevent both missed losses and double recovery.
Use two columns: what you lost and what you received. For earnings, compare the expected pay with the pay actually received over the same period. For treatment, record the invoice and who paid it. If a provider has deferred payment, retain the agreement; an unpaid invoice is a different fact from an expense already met by an insurer.
Evidence gaps: decide what can still be established
Make an evidence map, not a pile of attachments
A useful evidence map links each disputed question to a possible source. The question “Was the floor wet before I fell?” may point to photographs, cleaning records, witness observations and CCTV. The question “How much work did I miss?” points to absence records and payslips. A hundred unrelated photographs will not necessarily answer either question.
For each item, record whether you possess it, have requested it or merely believe it may exist. This avoids the misleading impression that a document has been secured when it has only been discussed. Record who will follow up and when. A preservation request and a disclosure request have related but different purposes: keeping something from being destroyed does not automatically mean it will be released to you immediately.
Use original files where possible. Keep a separate working copy for annotations. If you create a photograph collage, retain the underlying photographs. If you write a summary of a conversation, retain the original message thread. The summary helps navigation; the underlying material preserves context.
No witness does not automatically mean no case
An independent witness can be valuable, but a claim may also depend on the parties' accounts, documents, physical evidence and expert opinion. Identify whether a supposed witness actually saw the event or only arrived afterwards. Both may have useful information, but they prove different things.
Ask witnesses to preserve their own recollection and contact details without rehearsing a common version. Do not tell them what they “must have seen”. If they are uncertain about the timing or position, record that uncertainty. A witness who candidly distinguishes observation from assumption may be more useful than one who supplies unjustified precision.
When nobody saw the precise moment, surrounding evidence can still matter. A till receipt might establish your presence; a message could record your immediate description; a first-aid note may identify a location. None should be represented as proving more than it actually proves.
Report disagreements early
Tell the solicitor about an inaccurate incident form, a previous inconsistent account or an allegation against you. Give the original document and your explanation. Correcting an error should create a transparent record of what is wrong and why; it should not make the original disappear.
For example, if an accident form says “left ankle” but treatment concerned the right ankle, preserve the form and identify the contemporaneous medical record. If your early message says you felt fine but symptoms developed later, provide both facts. A changing medical picture and a dishonest account are not the same thing, but the chronology needs to be explained accurately.
Your own conduct: contribution and credibility are different issues
An allegation that you contributed to the accident or injury needs to be assessed on its evidence and legal relevance. It is not an automatic all-or-nothing answer. Under the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945, damages can be reduced to reflect a claimant's responsibility for the damage. Whether a reduction applies, and its amount, depend on the case.
Separate conduct before the incident from accuracy during the claim. Whether you followed a safety instruction is one question. Whether you have honestly described your injuries and losses is another. You should disclose potentially adverse facts so that advice is based on the real case rather than an edited version.
Avoid percentage guessing. An insurer's proposed split is a negotiating position unless it has been agreed or determined. Ask what evidence supports it, whether it concerns the accident or the severity of injury, and what accepting it would mean for the financial outcome. A percentage without an explanation is not a meaningful merits assessment.
Dishonesty carries risks well beyond a disagreement about value. Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 addresses dismissal of personal injury claims involving fundamental dishonesty. Do not exaggerate symptoms, conceal relevant recovery or claim costs that were never incurred. If you notice an error in material already supplied, raise it promptly and keep the correction traceable.
Time limits and separate routes need an early check
The guide to personal injury deadlines provides a separate dates-to-discuss worksheet for the timing assessment.
For many civil personal injury claims in England and Wales, the starting point is the three-year period under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980, with the relevant starting date and exceptions requiring assessment. Do not assume the incident anniversary answers every case. Children, capacity, later knowledge, death, defective products and specialist compensation routes can raise different issues.
The practical message is to obtain a deadline assessment promptly, not to calculate your own final date from this article. Give the earliest relevant incident and symptom dates. Disclose any earlier advice, previous claim, foreign element or communication suggesting that a deadline is approaching. An ongoing complaint or investigation should not be assumed to preserve a civil claim.
A notification, website enquiry or telephone conversation is not the same thing as issuing and properly progressing court proceedings. Ask the firm to confirm its agreed scope and who is responsible for limitation. If it cannot act, obtain that answer quickly enough to explore another adviser. Waiting for a preferred person to return a call can be particularly risky near a deadline.
Case acceptance: what a solicitor needs before agreeing to act
A useful first enquiry is short, structured and candid
Begin with the event date, location, parties, injury and urgent concern. Add whether you have already instructed someone, signed funding documents or received an offer. Attach a short chronology and a document index if available. You do not need to send every medical record in an unsecured first email.
State your preferred contact method and any communication needs. A family member assisting with messages should make clear whom they represent and on what basis. The firm may need to speak directly to the injured person or clarify authority before discussing confidential information. That is different from refusing to listen to an initial explanation.
If several people were injured, provide their separate names and roles for conflict assessment without assuming that one firm can act for everyone. A driver and passenger may have aligned interests in some respects and competing interests in others. The solicitor should identify the representation position before sensitive accounts are treated as a shared file.
Ask for the scope and funding position in writing
If you are comparing conditional funding with other options, use the questions in Before Signing a No Win No Fee Agreement alongside the provider's actual terms.
Acceptance should identify what the firm will do, who will handle the matter, what you must provide and how fees and expenses will work. A preliminary document review is not necessarily an agreement to conduct the entire claim. Ask whether court proceedings, expert reports, an appeal or a related employment dispute fall within the retainer.
Funding options differ by firm and case. Check existing legal expenses insurance and any union or membership assistance. A conditional fee arrangement must be understood through its actual terms, not its advertising label. The SRA's consumer guidance on no win, no fee agreements explains why costs, disbursements and possible liabilities should be made clear before agreement.
Alexander James Solicitors' service enquiry should establish whether the firm can assist and on what private-fee terms. This article does not offer legal aid or promise that a conditional fee agreement will be available. Ask for the applicable written costs information before instructing any work.
Initial claim assessment worksheet
Copy the following questions into a document. Use “unknown” where appropriate and add a source beside each answer. This is a preparation aid, not a self-scoring eligibility test.
| Assessment area | What to record | What the answer helps investigate |
|---|---|---|
| Event | Date, approximate time, precise place and activity | Which event and jurisdiction require assessment |
| Parties | Names, legal entities, roles and available contact details | Potential duties, defendants and conflicts |
| Alleged failure | The precaution or decision you believe was missing | Whether there is a specific breach to investigate |
| Immediate evidence | Photographs, reports, messages, witness details and recording locations | What can corroborate the account and what may expire |
| Medical chronology | First symptoms, attendance, treatment and relevant earlier conditions | Whether medical causation needs investigation |
| Daily impact | Work, mobility, personal care and household changes | The nature and duration of the consequences |
| Financial position | Lost pay, expenses, assistance and payments received | Potential loss categories and accounting questions |
| Adverse facts | Warnings, instructions, competing accounts and earlier inconsistencies | Defences, contribution and credibility issues |
| Deadlines | Incident, knowledge, prior advice and any stated deadline | What needs urgent legal calculation |
| Representation | Previous advisers, signed agreements, offers and agreed next steps | Whether a retainer or handover already exists |
After completing the table, write three short lists: evidence already secured, evidence someone else holds and questions requiring advice. Keep those lists separate. This makes the initial discussion much more productive than an unfiltered account that mixes facts, suspicions and legal conclusions.
Add a final line headed “Immediate action and owner”. For example: “Ask the shop to preserve the camera covering the entrance; claimant to send request today; solicitor to advise on obtaining footage if instructions are accepted.” The example allocates a practical task without implying that the claimant has a right to receive every recording on demand.
Worked examples: how the assessment can change
The following are hypothetical teaching examples, not firm results or predictions.
Example one: a shop fall with no accident-book entry
A customer describes slipping near a refrigerated display. They have a receipt from the visit, a photograph taken shortly afterwards and a message sent to a relative that afternoon. The store says it has no incident report. The absence of the report leaves a gap, but does not itself establish that the fall never happened. The investigation should distinguish proof of the event from proof of the store's alleged failure.
The photograph may show moisture without establishing how long it was present. Cleaning and inspection records may therefore matter. A witness who saw staff drying the area afterwards may support the condition of the floor, but may not know what the store knew before the fall. The next step is targeted evidence preservation and an assessment of the actual inspection system, not an automatic conclusion for either side.
Example two: a workplace injury after documented training
A warehouse worker signed induction paperwork but says the later task involved a different load and no lifting aid. The employer relies on the signature. The relevant questions include what training covered, whether the actual task was assessed, what equipment was available and how work was supervised. The signature is relevant evidence; it is not the entire investigation.
The worker should preserve their recollection of the load, frequency, route, assistance and instructions. They should also disclose any departure from instructions. Medical records must address the injury and relevant earlier symptoms. This keeps the safety allegation, the worker's own conduct and medical causation in separate, assessable parts.
Example three: pain after a collision with an earlier back problem
A passenger had occasional back pain before a collision and reports more persistent symptoms afterwards. A claim assessment needs the earlier records, the incident account and the subsequent clinical history. Neither “you already had back pain” nor “the pain became worse afterwards” answers the whole causation question.
A before-and-after activity record can help explain the functional change. The expert may consider whether the collision aggravated symptoms and, if so, for how long. The compensation assessment should follow that evidence. It should not assume lifelong consequences because symptoms continue at the time of the first enquiry.
Questions people ask before an initial assessment
1. Do I need to know the correct legal name of the defendant before enquiring?
No. Provide the names and documents you have, including trading names, receipts, employment paperwork or booking information. Identifying the correct legal entity is part of the investigation. Be explicit about uncertainty: a familiar brand, building owner and operating company may be different parties. Do not send a formal claim to a guessed entity on the assumption that the name can always be corrected later.
2. Does an apology prove that someone accepted legal responsibility?
Not necessarily. Preserve the exact words, speaker, date and context. An expression of sympathy, an offer of practical help and a formal admission of liability are different things. Tell the solicitor whether the statement was written or spoken and whether anyone else heard it. Avoid improving the wording from memory to make it sound more conclusive.
3. Can I ask for an assessment before I have recovered?
Yes. Early advice may help with evidence and deadlines even when the medical outcome is uncertain. An initial merits assessment is different from a final valuation or settlement decision. Explain what remains under investigation, what treatment is planned and whether symptoms are changing. The solicitor can identify which decisions can be made now and which require further evidence.
4. What if the injury seems small but the financial effect is substantial?
Describe both accurately. A relatively limited injury may still disrupt particular work or require temporary assistance, but the claimed financial consequences need evidence and a causal connection. Provide actual job duties, absence dates and payment records. Avoid assuming that financial difficulty alone makes every loss recoverable or guarantees that a firm can run the case economically.
5. Is a photograph taken the next day still useful?
It may be useful, provided its timing is clear. State when it was taken and whether you know the scene had changed. A later image can help show layout or a continuing defect, but should not be presented as a photograph of the precise accident conditions. Preserve the original file and any contemporaneous images or messages that supply additional context.
6. Can a relative provide evidence if they did not witness the accident?
They may be able to describe your condition afterwards, assistance provided or changes they personally observed. They should not claim to have witnessed the event itself. Ask them to distinguish what they saw from what you told them. Their relationship does not make their evidence automatically worthless, but the nature and limits of their knowledge matter.
7. What should I do if I gave the wrong date in my first email?
Send a clear correction as soon as you identify the error. Explain which date was wrong and the source of the corrected date, such as an appointment record or receipt. Keep the original email. A transparent correction is more useful than silently replacing the document, particularly where the difference could affect a deadline or the identification of a recording.
8. Does a police decision determine my civil claim?
Do not assume it does. Police enquiries and a civil compensation claim address different questions and operate through different processes. Provide any reference number, report or decision letter. A solicitor can assess what the material establishes and what remains disputed. A lack of prosecution is not, by itself, a complete civil liability analysis.
9. Should I wait for an employer's internal investigation to finish?
You can provide the investigation details while seeking independent advice now. Ask for evidence to be preserved and disclose any stated timescale for the investigation. Waiting may affect access to documents or leave insufficient time for other steps. Do not assume that the employer's process pauses the period for bringing a civil claim.
10. What if I cannot remember the exact sequence of the accident?
Record what you remember and mark the gaps. Note whether pain, shock, loss of consciousness or another circumstance affected your recollection. Other evidence may help reconstruct the sequence. Do not fill missing moments with a version suggested by someone else merely because it sounds plausible. A candid incomplete account is preferable to invented certainty.
11. Can I include psychological symptoms in the first discussion?
Yes. Explain the symptoms and any professional assessment or treatment without assigning yourself a diagnosis. The solicitor can consider whether relevant medical evidence is needed and how the symptoms relate to the incident. Distinguish temporary worry, an established condition and an unassessed concern. Seek appropriate clinical support for health needs independently of the legal investigation.
12. What if my manager says making a claim is disloyal?
Preserve the communication and obtain advice about the injury and any separate employment concern. Avoid responding with threats or making assumptions about what your employer may lawfully do. Your employment status, the conduct involved and applicable deadlines require their own assessment. An injury solicitor's retainer does not automatically cover an employment dispute.
13. Do I have to assemble all my medical records myself?
Usually the first task is to identify the providers and relevant dates. A solicitor can explain which records are needed, how authority will be obtained and who will request them. Send records securely when asked. Avoid delaying an urgent enquiry while trying to obtain an exhaustive history that may take time to arrive.
14. Can an insurer reject a claim before seeing all the evidence?
An insurer may state its position on the information available. Keep the rejection and identify its reasons. A reasoned response can then address specific factual or legal issues, rather than merely repeating that the decision feels unfair. New material may matter, but it should be genuine evidence addressing the disputed point, not a revised account designed to fit it.
15. Is it worth mentioning expenses when I have lost the receipts?
Yes. List them accurately, say which receipts are missing and identify alternative support such as bank entries or supplier records. Do not round estimates upwards or describe an estimate as an exact payment. The solicitor can assess whether the expense and its connection to the injury can be proved sufficiently through the material available.
16. What if two businesses blame each other?
Identify each business and its actual role. Preserve contracts, work orders, notices and communications showing who controlled the activity or premises. Do not choose a defendant solely because that business appears easier to contact. The legal assessment may need to consider multiple parties, their respective duties and procedural implications before deciding how a claim should proceed.
17. Will using an online eligibility checker establish that I have a case?
No. A questionnaire can help organise information, but it cannot establish disputed facts or replace an individual assessment. Keep a copy of the answers you submitted and correct mistakes promptly. Be cautious about any result that promises success without examining evidence, identifying the legal basis or explaining the firm's actual acceptance and funding process.
18. Should I accept an assessment that gives a precise value immediately?
Ask what assumptions and evidence support it. An early indication may be qualified by unresolved recovery, earnings and liability issues. A precise-looking number can still rest on uncertain inputs. Request an explanation of the injury element, financial losses, potential reductions and costs rather than treating an online range or brief telephone estimate as a settlement recommendation.
19. If one solicitor declines, does another assessment waste time?
Not necessarily. First ask whether the refusal concerned merits, funding, capacity, specialism or a conflict. Supply that explanation and any documents to the next adviser. Avoid repeatedly submitting an incomplete account while a deadline approaches. A second assessment is most useful when it addresses the actual reason for refusal and any evidence that could resolve it.
20. What should I have in writing after the first conversation?
Obtain a record of whether instructions were accepted, the agreed scope, the next action, responsibility for that action and the funding position. If further information is required, identify exactly what it is. If a deadline is urgent, ask whether the firm has agreed to take the necessary protective steps; do not infer that from a courteous or encouraging discussion.
Prepare your enquiry
Use the worksheet to prepare a one-page chronology and an index of the evidence you already hold. Put urgent dates at the top. Keep medical detail proportionate for the first contact and ask how sensitive records should be supplied securely.
For an enquiry about representation, visit the personal injury claims service. Ask whether the firm can assess your circumstances, what work that assessment includes and what private fees apply. The useful outcome is a clear, evidence-based next step, including a candid explanation if the firm cannot act.
