A Guide How To Make A Child Accident Compensation Claim? – How To Claim Personal Injury For A Child?

By Danielle Nichollson. Last Updated 23rd November 2022. Welcome to this guide on how to make a child accident claim. On this page, we discuss how much compensation could be achieved in different types of accident claim, and explain how we could help you make a claim on behalf of your child.

There are many situations in which a child can become injured and, in a lot of those cases, it’s just part of life. However, if a child suffers injuries because of somebody else’s negligence then they may be able to claim compensation for their injuries.

Advice.co.uk offer free legal advice about making child accident compensation claims and other personal injuries for anybody who’s unsure if they’re eligible to claim.

Begin A Child Accident Claim Today

If you’d like to begin a No Win No Fee claim for an injury to your child today, then please call 0161 696 9685 and one of our team will talk you through the process.

If you’d like to know more first, then please carry on this useful guide which will provide you with all of the information you’re likely to need.

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A Guide To Child Accident Compensation Claims

Child accident compensation claims guide

Child accident compensation claims guide

According to statistics released by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), over two million children (under 15 years old) have accidents every year including some fatal accidents.

The type of accidents that can lead to compensation claims include where:

  • The child is injured in a car accident.
  • The child is injured at school.
  • They are hurt in an indoor play area.
  • Medical negligence against a child.
  • When the child is injured in a public place like a shop, park or restaurant.
  • Or when a child suffers whiplash.

While many of those accidents are preventable, there are cases where children are injured because somebody else was negligent. The accident may not have been caused intentionally, but if somebody else has caused your child to be injured then it is only right that you should consider taking legal action on your child’s behalf.

This guide will cover what you should do if your child is injured in an accident, how much child accident compensation claims are worth, time limits involved in making a claim, what you can actually claim for and how Advice.co.uk can help you to claim with free legal advice and no win no fee services.

If you are in any doubt about whether you have a valid claim against somebody or not, then please call one of our specially trained advisers who will be able to assess your claim for you. They understand that it may be difficult to discuss an accident involving your child, especially in the case of a serious accident, so we are happy to work at a pace that suits you and we will not put any pressure on you throughout the claim process.

Child Injury Personal Injury Compensation Claims Calculator

Many clients ask if we provide a persona injury claims calculator to work out how much compensation their child may be entitled to but, in reality, these don’t exist because it’s impossible to know all of details about a claim from a calculator.

We offer estimates of compensation amounts once we’ve spoken with you and know the full details of how your child was injured and what effect the injuries had on them.

That said, we can provide the table below which details one part of the claim, General Damages, which is the part of a claim awarded for pain and suffering to the child:

Part of Child's bodySeverityRange of CompensationFurther Notes
HeadVery severe£282,010 to £403,990A lack of meaningful response to their environment.
HeadModerate (i)£150,110 to £219,070Moderate to severe intellectual deficit along with personality changed and impacts on sight, speech and senses. At this level, brain damage will also cause a significant epilepsy risk.
Back Severe£38,780 to £160,980The type of accident that reduces mobility of the claimant and has an impact on their life day to day
NeckSevere£45,470 to £148,330This range can result in partial paralysis, serious pain and other loss of function
Neck Minor Up to £7,890Soft tissue type damage or whiplash
HandSerious (b)£55,820 to £84,570Significant function loss and permanent cosmetic disability.
ArmSerious£39,170 to £59,860Significant residual disability, either in functioning or appearance, from serious fractures that could occur in one or both arms.
Elbow Severe£39,170 to £54,830Injury that causes severe disabilities.
ElbowLess severe£15,650 to £32,010Function impairments that do not cause a significant disability.
ShoulderSerious £12,770 to £19,200Can range from numbness to limited movement/use of either or both arms

As you can see, each injury type contains a range of compensation amounts, so a minor injury will be paid less compensation than a severe, life-changing injury. It is important to use a specialist personal injury solicitor to make your claim because they will need to prove how severely child’s injury was to ensure they get the correct level of compensation.

Don’t worry if you can’t see the injury that your child sustained. This list is just a sample from a very long list, please call us if you need more information on a specific type of injury.

What Can You Claim Compensation For If Your Child Is Injured?

As mentioned in the previous section, when making a claim for child accident compensation, there are number of parts or elements to a claim. Not every claim will use every element but, for your information, we’ve listed them here:

General Damages For A Child Accident Claim

These payments are made to compensate your child for the pain and suffering caused by their injuries. They are defined by a document known as the Judicial College Guidelines which a personal injury lawyer can base their compensation claim on, once they understand the severity of the injury.

Special Damages For A Child Accident Claim

These are made up of all of the extras costs that you or your child incurred as a result of the accident. The idea of special damages is that you are returned, financially, to the position you were in prior to the accident. Special damages can include:

Cost of Care

This can include any costs that are incurred while caring for the child during recovery or any future care costs if the injury is long term.

Medical Costs

If you have to pay for any specialist medical care to treat your child’s injuries, then you can claim the costs back. Obviously, children are eligible for free prescription medicines but there may be over the counter medicines required or specialist treatment which isn’t available via the NHS.

Loss of Earnings

Obviously, your child won’t be earning a salary but if you have to take unpaid time off from work to care for them, have to change jobs or stop working in extreme cases then you may be able to seek loss and future loss of earnings.

Personal Property Replacement

If any item of personal property is damaged when your child is injured, then you could ask for the costs to replace or repair these items. This could include items such as clothing, spectacles, phones or other electronic devices that the child was carrying when they had their accident.

With any of the special damages, you should try to provide your personal injury solicitor with receipts or credit card statements that prove the expenditure was made.

It is important that you provide your personal injury solicitor with all of your relevant expenditure and details of any future expenditure that you may make as, once the claim has been settled, you can’t go back and ask for anything that you forgot to claim for.

What Information Do You Need To Make A Child Accident Claim Or Injury Compensation Claim?

Any personal injury solicitor will require evidential information from you to be able to make a valid claim. You are likely to be asked to provide some or all of these things:

  • Information about where and when the accident occurred.
  • Information how the accident happened and if possible, photographs of the scene of the accident before anything is removed.
  • The name and address of anyone you allege was supervising your child when the accident happened.
  • Contact details for any witnesses who saw what happened when your child was injured.
  • If the accident was a road traffic collision as either a passenger or pedestrian, then the details of the other driver will also be required.
  • Medical records detailing the extent of the injuries to your child or the name and address of the doctor or hospital that you visited.

As you can see, the solicitor aims to have plenty of evidence to substantiate the claim against the defendant and it’s important that you can provide as much as possible.

If the accident happened in a public place like a shop, school, restaurant etc it’s important that the accident is reported in an accident report book or similar and that you obtain a copy of the report where possible.

Who Is Eligible To Claim Compensation On Behalf Of A Child?

In UK law, a child is deemed to lack the legal capacity to make a personal injury claim themselves until they are 18 years old.

As a parent (or responsible adult) you can make a claim on the child’s behalf by being appointed as their ‘Litigation Friend’.

If a court has to decide on who will be the litigation friend for an injured child then they could ask a parent (or guardian), a solicitor, a court protection deputy, a family friend or member of the family, a professional advocate or someone who has the enduring power of attorney for the child.

In most personal injury cases, the court do not need to appoint a litigation friend as the parent or guardian would usually apply via their accident claim.

What Is A Litigation Friend In A Child Accident Claim And Who Can Apply To Be One?

A legal friend is a legal term used to define somebody who represents another, legally, because they would be unable to make decisions in court for themselves. These usually are children or adults who don’t have the mental capacity themselves to make a claim or deal with any court proceedings.

To become a legal friend there is an application form or you will be appointed by a court if necessary and once appointed you have to deal with solicitors and courts (where needed) on the child’s behalf and make any decisions in their best interests (not your own).

What Can You Make A Children’s Injury Claim For?

In legal terms, you can make a child accident compensation claim for any accident that was caused by somebody else who owed your child a duty of care.

This means that if somebody else caused your child’s accident because of negligence, a mistake or an accident then you could seek compensation for your child’s injuries by making a child accident claim.

This can include any type of injury including whiplash, broken bones, head injuries, food poisoning, medical negligence, child birth injuries and any other type of injury so long as it could’ve been prevented.

Most public places automatically owe your child a duty of care, even a local park which is run by the council. They would have to ensure the park was safe, equipment was well maintained items such as benches, gates and fences were risk free. This is true in schools, nurseries, play centres, shops, a leisure centre and anywhere else you and your child could reasonably be expected to attend.

Can I Claim Compensation If My Child Has Had A Serious Injury?

Serious injuries are generally deemed to be those which have life-changing affects on the child and can be traumatising for them, their parents and the rest of their family. These types of accidents can include child head injuries, child car accidents and anything that involves the child’s back or head.

It is only right that, if your child is seriously injured by somebody else’s negligence, you seek compensation for your child’s accident and injuries. It is probably going to be vital for you to be able to cope day to day and make adaptations to both of your lives.

If your child has been seriously injured in an accident and you would like free legal advice about how to proceed to a compensation claim, then please call our team today.

What Happens To Compensation Claimed On Behalf Of A Child?

The process for child compensation awards in the UK is different to that of an adult claim in that a local court will hold an “Infant Approval Hearing”.

These are used, in every child compensation case, to ensure that the compensation is enough to compensate the child for their injuries. Once approved the court will allow the release of the funds in to a trust fund.

The trust will remain in place until the child turns 18 but, as a parent, you are able to write to the court to ask for funds if it is beneficial to the child i.e. if they need specialist equipment.

Child Accident Claims – Time Limits

Child accident claim time limit

Child accident claim time limit

In typical personal injury claims, the Limitation Act 1980 sets the time limit to start a claim at three years from the date of the injury or the date negligence was determined to be the cause of the injury. However, this is different in child accident claims, as children cannot represent themselves in legal proceedings. Therefore, the time limit will be suspended. Once the child turns 18, the time limit is no longer suspended, and they will have three years to start their claim.

However, a litigation friend can start child accident compensation claims at any point during the time limit’s suspension. For example, if your child had an accident at nursery, you could apply to be their litigation friend to start a claim on their behalf. If you claim on behalf of your child, they will not be able to claim once they turn 18. The compensation will also only be available to them once they turn 18 unless you apply for interim payments.

Call our advisors for further information about litigation friends in child accident compensation claims.

What Should You Do If Your Child Has Been Injured?

If your child has been injured in an accident, then the first thing you should do is assess if it was caused by somebody else’s mistake or negligence. Advice.co.uk provide free legal advice and are more than happy to assess your claim with you to let you know if somebody else is liable for the injury.

Once you’ve decided that you do want to make a claim, you should contact a personal injury specialist as soon as possible to ensure that a) the claim is made within the time limits and b) that they have plenty of time to prepare all of the supporting evidence that is required to make the claim as thorough as possible.

We’d advise that you choose a solicitor that specialises in personal injury claims to ensure that your child gains the correct amount of compensation for their injuries. Advice.co.uk use personal injury lawyers with up to 30 years’ experience who understand all of the litigation in place to protect children who’ve been injured in accidents and to ensure they are fully compensated.

No Win No Fee Child Accident Compensation Claims

Many parents, when considering making a child accident compensation claim, worry about the cost of the claim, the upfront payment and the risk of losing the case altogether.

It is true, that when using a traditional solicitor’s agreement, that if the case is lost you still have to pay the solicitor for their service and time. That’s not the case when using No Win No Fee agreements (or Conditional Fee Agreements – CFA’s).

When you sign a No Win No Fee agreement there will be a section which tells you what the solicitor will charge as a success fee. This is a fixed percentage of your compensation that the solicitor will keep if they win the case (it is limited to 25% by law).

If the solicitor wins your case, they retain their success fee and then send the rest of the compensation directly to you. If they lose, you pay them nothing at all.

It is true that when using a traditional agreement, you’ll keep 100% of any compensation that is awarded but, if the case is lost, you still have to pay the solicitor for their services.

At Advice.co.uk we only use a panel of solicitors who work exclusively with no win no fee agreements for the cases they take on because we believe this makes claiming risk free, stress free and is the fairest way for our clients to make a compensation claim.

How We Can Advise You Through The Claims Process

Advice.co.uk have a team of personal injury specialists whose aim is to ensure that all of our clients receive the correct amount of compensation that their (or their children’s) injuries deserve.

We work exclusively on personal injury claims, so understand what is relevant and what isn’t. We work with a dedicated panel of professional personal injury solicitors with up to 30 years’ experience in making personal injury compensation claims.

We’ll always be honest and open about the chances of success with your claim as we don’t believe it’s fair to make any false promises. If you do decide that Advice.co.uk can take your case on then we’ll follow this process:

Step One: Get in touch with our team via email, phone or our live chat.Step Two: We’ll assess your claim with you.Step Three: When you’re ready, we’ll commence your claim for you.

How To Get Advice From Our Team On A Child Accident Claim

Now that you’ve read this guide about child accident compensation claims, we hope you have decided whether to make a claim or not. If so, you can get in touch via the following methods:

  • Telephone: Call the team today on 0161 696 9685 and they’ll begin your claim with you.
  • Online: Fill in this simple form and we’ll get back to you at a convenient time.
  • Email: Send a message, with brief details of your claim, to [email protected]

Remember, we only work with no win no fee solicitors and our team can help with accidents involving children based anywhere within the UK.

When you get in touch, we’ll begin by offering a free, no-obligation, consultation where we’ll listen in detail to the details of your child’s accident, the injuries they sustained and how it has affected them.

We’ll then let you know if there’s a good chance that you’ll get compensation and, if so, begin the claims process with you.

Additional Information On Making A Child Accident Claim

Hopefully, this guide has provided you with everything you need to know, and you now know whether your going to make a claim or not. For your information, we’ve provided some useful articles that may help you further:

Children’s Accidents – an NHS guide with useful information about what to do in the event of an accident involving your child.

Ofsted Accident Reporting – If you wish to report a serious accident involving a child in an English educational establishment, then this is the form to use.

NHS Head Injuries – This is a useful article about the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and recovery following a serious head injury. It’s not child specific but still relevant.

FAQ On Making A Child Accident Claim

Could I Make A Child Accident Claim For A Pedestrian Accident

If you’re wondering whether you could claim compensation if your child was knocked over as a pedestrian, you would need to prove that the motorist that hit your child breached their duty of care, causing your child’s injury. If you’re wondering how commonly people are injured on Great Britain’s roads, there are some statistics below that could interest you. According to the government’s figures for 2020-21, there were 115,584 casualties of all severities during this period. You can see how many of these were serious in the graph below.

child accident claim statistics graph

Can Children Claim Damages?

Children do not have the required legal capacity to make a claim for themselves while they are under 18. Once they turn 18, they could make a claim for what has happened to them. Alternatively, while they are under 18, an adult could make a child accident claim for them as a litigation friend.

Can I Claim Whiplash For My Child?

Now that the Whiplash Claims Reforms have been made, some whiplash claims have changed. Soft tissue injuries in road traffic accident claims that are valued under £5000 must be made via an online portal. Further to this, such claims would require medical evidence to be processed, and they would be compensated in accordance with a tariff that has been put in place. It compensated people based on the length of time they’ve suffered with their injuries. To find out how to make claims in this way, and see if we could help you, please get in touch with the team.

If you require any further information on making a child accident claim then please call Advice.co.uk and one of our team will happily provide the latest legal advice for you.