Neck Injury Compensation

No matter under what situation you have developed an injured neck, in order to make claims for neck injury compensation in Ireland, the accident in which you suffered the injury must be related to the carelessness of somebody who should have performed a reasonable duty of care. This does not mean that person had to be physically available when your neck injury was sustained in order to claim compensation for an injured neck – just that their recklessness was the reason why your neck injury occurred.

It can occur that it may not even be an individual against whom an injured neck claim for compensation is made. Compensation claims for neck injuries can be made against corporate bodies, local councils and State agencies who have failed in their duty of care to protect you from foreseeable risks and, once it is established that the incident in which your neck was injured could have been prevented had greater care been taken by one of these “third parties”, you will be eligible to make a claim for injuring the neck and recover compensation for your injury.

Establishing Negligence in a Claim for injuring the neck

In most scenarios, the procedure for making compensation claims for neck injuries in Ireland is to submit an application for assessment to the Injuries Board; who will then contact the person(s) named on your application and request their consent to proceed with an assessment of your injured neck claim for compensation. The assessment of neck injury compensation is only performed with the consent from the “respondent”.

At this point, there is no need for you to submit evidence of negligence in support of a claim for injuring the neck; however, in the event that the respondent declines their consent, you may then have to pursue compensation for an injured neck through the courts. Court action is not always necessary, as many claims for neck injury compensation in Ireland are resolved by negotiation; however, in order to get a satisfactory resolution of your claim for injuring the neck, it is in your best interests that negligence is established before an injury claim is started.

In order for a person to be considered responsible for your neck injury, it has to be determined that they should have performed a “duty of care” and were in breach of that duty of care when your neck was injured. However, a duty of care is not necessarily “absolute”. This means, for example, that if you injure your neck after slipping and falling in a shop on liquid that had immediately prior been spilled by the shopper in front of you, and the shop staff had not had a “reasonable” period of time in which to take action to remove this hazard, you may not be eligible to claim compensation for an injured neck.

Making Compensation Claims for Neck Injuries

The process for making compensation claims for neck injuries in Ireland is to submit an application for assessment to the Injuries Board. This can be done using a hard copy of the Assessment Form A or by making your application for the assessment of compensation for an injured neck injury online (except in the case of neck injury compensation claims for children). Your application for assessment will be strengthened by your doctor´s medical assessment of your injured neck injury (Assessment Form B) and receipts for any financial expenses you are seeking.

Once the Injuries Board Ireland receives consent from the negligent party to continue with an assessment, you may need to undergo a further medical examination to determine the extent of your neck injury – after which the Injuries Board will initiate a “Notice of Assessment” informing you and the negligent party of how much they have assessed your claim for injuring the neck to be worth. If both you and the negligent party consent with the Injuries Board´s assessment of your injured neck claim for compensation, an “Order to Pay” is made and your claim will be settled by the negligent party´s insurance company.

Litigating Neck Injury Compensation in Ireland

The possibility of court action may sometimes dissuade plaintiffs from making compensation claims for neck injuries; however insurance companies are often even less keen to litigate an injured neck claim for compensation in court. The costs of litigation in Ireland can be enormous and, regardless of how justified the insurance company feel they are in denying their policyholder´s responsibility for your neck injury, they are taking a financial risk (that a court will rule in your favour) and this often encourages an out of court settlement of compensation for an injured neck without admitting liability.

This is particularly true when litigation in court may be needed to settle a dispute over how much your claim for injuring the neck is worth. Courts do not take kindly to financial disputes of this nature, and both parties will be recommended to negotiate a neck injury compensation settlement before an appearance in court is needed. In most compensation claims for neck injuries in Ireland, your solicitor will approach the negligent party´s insurers at the same time as an assessment is submitted to the Injuries Board, and will be able to advise you at an early stage whether or not court action to resolve your claim for injuring the neck is a possibility.

Compensation Claim for Injuring the Neck: Summary

No two compensation claims for neck injuries in Ireland are exactly alike – no matter how similar the circumstances of the accident were – and it is constantly in your best interests to discuss your accident and neck injury with a solicitor at the earliest possible moment. A solicitor will be able to help with potential issues such as establishing liability for your neck injury, gathering evidence of negligence on your behalf and ensuring that your application for the assessment of neck injury compensation to the Injuries Board fairly reflects the consequences that your injured neck have made to your quality of life.

A neck injury can often be a debilitating experience, and although no amount of compensation for an injured neck can ever make up for the negligence of the person who was to blame for your injury, it costs nothing to find out whether you have an injured neck claim for compensation which it is worth your while to pursue. Therefore, it is advisable to discuss your eligibility to make a compensation claim for injuring the neck with a solicitor at the first practical opportunity.