How Do I Prove My Car Accident Injury?

Proving a car accident injury involves gathering evidence. This guide walks you through the type of evidence you may need in different circumstances. In the sections below we discuss the importance of collating evidence such as medical reports, photographs, witness details, proof of expenses and more.

We also take a look at how evidence could affect your payout, and how UK lawyers could give you further help when it comes to how to prove an injury from a car accident, whether it was caused by another driver or faulty traffic lights, for example. At the end of this guide, we answer frequently asked questions relating to how to prove a personal injury claim.

What Is A Car Accident Injury?

The graph below has been generated using government statistics for reported road traffic accidents. Injuries that are caused by a road traffic accident can take many forms. For these statistics, the injuries reported in year ending June 2021 have been placed into 3 categories.

As you can see below, they are:

Slight – this could be something like bruising or a mild case of whiplash
Serious – things like severe fractures or paralysis may fall under this bracket
Fatal – this is when the victim dies as a result of their injuries

You will need to be able to prove your car accident injury, regardless of the severity. The cause will probably fall into this as well. Although, as what’s more important is that you can prove your injuries were caused by another road user’s negligence. If your injuries are entirely your own fault then you won’t be able to claim compensation.

The graph below also specifies how the accidents over this period were caused. They are organised by categories of injudicious action. As we can see, exceeding the speed limit was the leading cause of both slight and serious accidents, as well as fatal ones.

All of these actions can be interpreted as not following the rules listed in the Highway Code. Obeying these rules is part of a road user’s duty of care to others on the road. By not following them, they risk others and themselves being injured. If this happens, it is known as a breach of duty of care and a claim could be made against them.

It is the responsibility of all drivers, cyclists, and even pedestrians to make sure they act as safely as possible when using the road. However, things outside of their control can still happen. For example, certain weather conditions or damage to roads can also lead to accidents.

As long as the drivers adjust accordingly, it’s less likely that you could make a successful claim for compensation against them. This is because they have fulfilled their duty of care to the best of their ability.

Prove my car accident injury statistics graph

What Injuries Are Common In A Road Traffic Accident?

There are a number of different injuries you could sustain in a car crash. Your injuries could depend on the nature of the accident, the speed and forces involved, and where you were positioned. Common road traffic accident injuries could include:

Whiplash injury
Facial disfigurement – this could be the result of a broken nose, a fracture of the jaw or cheekbone or scarring, for example.
Head Injury – a traumatic head injury could be significantly disabling, as it could affect your brain
A hand injury or finger injury
A fracture or break – this could include a broken shoulder, broken arm, or broken leg, for example
A dislocation – due to the forces at play in a car accident, your body may be forced into positions which mean you suffer a dislocated shoulder or knee for example.

No matter what type of injury you suffer in a car accident, the following sections should help answer the common question of ‘how do I prove my car accident injury?’

What Medical Evidence Could Prove My Car Accident Injury?

One of the most important pieces of evidence is the medical report. It answers the question of ‘how can I get proof of pain and suffering from a car accident?’ When you are making a personal injury claim for a car accident, you’d need to visit an independent medical expert.

This expert would need to examine you, talk to you about your injuries and perform some tests in some cases. After your assessment is complete, the independent medical expert would put together a medical report. This could be used to evidence your injuries.

How Can I Prove My Pain And Suffering If I’ve Only Seen My Own Doctor?

While a record of seeing your GP or going to the hospital for treatment or assessment could be useful, you would still need to attend an appointment with an independent professional. The independent medical report is crucial in ensuring you get all the compensation you are eligible for.

Take Photographs Of Your Car Accident Injury

It may seem strange to take photographs of an injury you’ve sustained, but doing so could be useful to your case. When it comes to how to prove injury from a car accident photographic evidence could make a significant impact. Not only could you take photographs of the initial injury, but you could also take progress pictures throughout its healing.

If these photographs have a time stamp on them, this could go some way towards proving how long the injury affects you. This is all information that could be used to help get you the maximum payout for your injury. If the injuries you suffer are in places that are difficult to photograph, for example, if you’ve sustained a finger injury and can’t use your camera, it could be a good idea to ask a friend or family member to help.

Take Photographs Of The Accident?

Photographs of an accident scene could be very useful to your case. Such photos could provide evidence of the positioning of vehicles in an RTA. In addition, they could be used as evidence of the state of the road or the weather conditions.

It would be wise, again, to use a timestamp on such photos if at all possible. You may need to take photographs from several different angles to give a full picture of what happened. It could be useful to take photographs of any vehicle damage, road traffic signs and other details.

What If I Can’t Take Photos? How Do I Prove An Injury Claim?

While in minor car accidents, you may be quite able to take photographs of the scene of an accident, serious injuries may mean you cannot. If you suffer serious injuries in a car accident, you may be wondering ‘how can I prove my car accident injury if I was taken away from the scene in an ambulance?’.

In these cases, you could ask a witness to do so, or you could ask the police if you are able. If not, you could return to the scene of the accident when you are able, although the signs of the accident may have been cleared. If you cannot get photos of the scene, see if there is any CCTV nearby. This could be useful in proving your claim.

Keep A Diary To Record What Happens To You

Keeping a diary may seem extreme, but if you document how your injury affects you on a daily basis, and how long it takes you to recover, this could be useful. Evidencing things you were unable to do, how your injury has affected you and any rehabilitation you’ve needed to undertake could significantly impact your claim and the compensation amount you receive.

How Can I Prove My Car Accident Injury Stopped Me Doing Things?

If, for example, you were to attend a planned sporting event and this became impossible because of your injury, you could record this in your diary. If you were suffering mentally after the accident and didn’t feel able to go out socially, you could also record this in your diary. All this gives a bigger picture of how much you may have suffered because of the road traffic accident.

Record Any Out Of Pocket Expenses

Personal injury claims are designed to put the claimant in the position that they would have been if the accident hadn’t injured them. Out of pocket expenses could form part of your compensation payout, but only if you could evidence them. Documents that could be useful in evidencing out of pocket expenses could include:

Bank statements
Physiotherapy bills
Receipts from prescription medicines
Payslips showing deductions for sick pay
Travel receipts
Credit card bills

Proving A Whiplash Injury

Whiplash is one injury that is common in car accidents. However, it could be difficult to prove such an injury as it is not a visible bruising or scarring. If you suspect you may have such an injury, you should seek medical attention. While the symptoms of whiplash aren’t always apparent straight away after an accident, they could come on over a few hours afterwards. You could experience stiffness, pain and headaches, and in extreme cases, whiplash could develop into a long-term chronic condition.

If you attend an appointment with a GP or health professional, this could be useful in proving you’ve sought treatment immediately after the accident. However, you would also need to undergo an independent assessment as part of your claim.

Car Accident Injury Compensation Calculator

Personal injury settlements can comprise general and special damages. General damages compensate for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries, whilst special damages compensate for the financial losses incurred due to your injuries.

When valuing general damages, solicitors can use the guideline award brackets in the Judicial College Guidelines. We have included some of these figures in the table below. Please only use them as a guide. However, the whiplash entries come from the tariff outlined in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021 and are fixed amounts.

Injury	Severity	JCG Bracket For Compensation (approx)
Neck injuries	Severe (iii)	£45,470 to £55,990
Neck injuries	Moderate (iii)	£7,890 to £13,740
Back injuries	Severe (iii)	£38,780 to £69,730
Back injuries	Moderate (ii)	£12,510 to £27,760
Pelvic/Hip injuries	Moderate (i-)	£26,590 to £39,170
Arm injuries	Severe (a)	£96,160 to £130,930
Arm injuries	Less severe (c)	£19,200 to £39,170
Leg injuries	Very serious (ii)	£54,830 to £87,890
Leg injuries	Moderate (iv)	£27,760 to £39,200
Whiplash	One or more whiplash injuries with psychological injuries lasting 18-24 months	£4,345
Whiplash	One or more whiplash injuries with symptoms lasting between 18-24 months.	£4,215

Special damages can compensate for losses such as loss of earnings, medical costs and travel costs. These can be proven with evidence such as payslips and travel tickets.

Will The Whiplash Reforms Affect My Claim?

The way some whiplash claims are made has changed. If you are a driver or passenger of a vehicle aged 18 or over with injuries that are valued at £5,000 or less, you will make your claim a different way. This is as per changes brought in by the Whiplash Reform Programme.

While any whiplash injuries will be valued in line with the tariff provided by the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021, if you suffer other injuries, these will be valued in line with the Judicial College Guidelines.

If other injuries take the total value of your claim over £5,000, you will make your claim in the traditional way. However, whiplash injuries will still be valued in accordance with the whiplash tariff.

To find out if the whiplash reforms could affect your claim, contact our team. They can also provide further guidance on the compensation you could receive if your claim succeeds.

How Are Pain And Suffering Determined In A Car Accident

When determining how much pain and suffering a claimant experienced, courts and lawyers would look at all the evidence that has been submitted. As we mentioned, when it comes to proving your injuries, the medical report could be extremely useful, as could your injury diary. However, this is not the only type of damages you could receive.

How Can I Prove My Car Accident Injury Led To Special Damages?

Special damages are the out of pocket expenses that arise due to your injury. They could include:

Medical expenses such as mobility aids and prescription costs
Travel expenses such as train fares to the hospital, for example
Care costs for any at home care you have needed because of your injury
Loss of income compensation if you’ve had to stay off work while recovering

What Is Fault In Car Accident Injury Claims?

Part of proving a car accident claim is valid is to prove who was at fault. This might have been a driver that ran a red light, was speeding, or performed a dangerous manoeuvre. It could also include those who were not paying due care and attention to the road. In some cases, it might be clear cut as to who is at fault.

However, in other cases, careful examination of the evidence of events leading up to a car crash might be required. In some cases, you might have been partially at fault for an accident, with the other party also to blame. This could result in you still being able to claim compensation. However, your compensation could be reduced to reflect your proportion of blame.

The Highway Code Can Help Show Fault

The Highway Code gives all road users rules, which they should be aware of when taking to the roads. If the Highway Code gives insight into how to perform certain manoeuvres safely, and a motorist does not adhere to the rules of the Highway Code, you could use the Highway Code to illustrate that the other person was at fault. You would, however, still need other evidence in order to prove you’ve suffered injuries due to another motorist’s fault.

How Much Time Do I Have To Prove My Car Accident Injury?

There is a personal injury claims time limit that applies to most personal injury claims. The limitation period is usually three years from the car accident date. However, some exceptions could apply, including:

Children – If a child is injured, a parent could claim on their behalf up until their 18^th If no one claims prior to the child turning 18, they could make a claim of their own and would have until their 21^st birthday to do so.
Those lacking mental capacity – If a person does not have the mental capacity to claim at the time, there is no limitation period as to when they should claim by. A litigation friend could claim on their behalf. However, once they retain Mental Capacity, they would have three years from the date they were discharged to claim.

If you’re not sure whether a UK lawyer could help you with a claim as you’re nearing the end of the limitation period, please call our team. We could assess your case without charge. We could also connect you with our panel of lawyers to help with a claim.

Could I Claim With No Win No Fee Car Accident Injury Lawyers?

If you’ve had a car accident in the UK, claiming with the help of a car accident injury lawyer could be beneficial. Our panel of solicitors offer their services under a type of No Win No Fee agreement known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under this type of agreement, you can access the services of car accident injury lawyers without paying any upfront or ongoing fees.

If your claim succeeds, your solicitor will deduct a success fee from your compensation. This success fee is capped by legislation which ensures that you keep the most of your award. However, if your claim doesn’t succeed, then you won’t pay this fee.

To find out if you could be eligible to work with a lawyer for a car accident injury from our panel, get in touch with our team. Our advisors can evaluate your claim for free, and if they find it to be valid, they may connect you with a solicitor.

Contact Our Team

To learn more about car accident claims, contact our team today:

Call 020 3870 4868
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Related Information

Hit And Run Victims – See here for guidance from the government on making a claim if you’ve been injured in a hit and run.

What Does The MIB Do? – The Motor Insurer’s Bureau could pay compensation for injuries sustained in some car accidents.

NHS – Broken Bones – A guide that tells you about symptoms and possible treatments of fractures.

Fatal Accidents – In this guide, you could find out whether you could claim for someone who has been killed in an accident.

Car Accident Tips – Wondering what to do about a car accident? This guide could assist.

Workplace Accident Claims – Have you been injured while working on the road? If so, this guide could help.

FAQs About Car Accident Injury Claims

Could I Claim For Another Person?

In some cases, you could claim on behalf of another person as their litigation friend. This usually relates to parents claiming on behalf of children. However, bereaved relatives and dependents could also claim if someone passes away in an accident that wasn’t their fault.

How Long Could My Claim Take?

Claim process times vary, depending on how complex they are and the parties involved. Simple claims could be settled within a relatively short period of time, while complex or disputed claims could take years to settle.

Who Pays My Compensation Settlement?

Usually, it is the at-fault party’s insurer that pays the compensation. However, if the case involves an untraced or uninsured driver, the Motor Insurer’s Bureau could pay compensation.

Will My Claim Go To Court?

Many car accident injury claims never reach the courts. Instead, they settle via negotiation with the parties involved. However, if the insurer or at-fault driver refuses or disputes your claim, your solicitor could file paperwork with the courts to take the matter further.

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