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Car Accident Claims And Insurance Excess Fees

By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated 21st February 2023. If you’re involved in a road traffic accident which is not your fault, you may be entitled to make a personal injury claim.

Within this, you can make claims for the initial injuries that you are suffering, financial losses and compensation for damage to your vehicle. You may also need to make a claim on your own vehicle insurance for initial repairs to your vehicle, before receiving any compensation due from the other party involved. If you do this, your insurance company may charge you the excess which is outlined in your insurance policy.

In this guide, we will take you through what you need to know about making car accident claims and how your insurance excess works.

When And How Can I Claim For A Car Accident?

If you have been injured in a car crash, compensation could be awarded to you for the pain and suffering that your injury has caused you and any financial losses you have suffered. However, car crash claims can only be made if the following apply:

  • Another road user owed you a duty of care.
  • This road user breached their duty of care.
  • As a result, you were injured in an accident.

All road users owe each other a duty of care. Per this duty of care, they must use the roads safely and responsibly to prevent accidents. They must also follow the rules that are set out for them in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code. If another road user were to breach their duty of care by behaving recklessly on the road, this could result in an accident where you are injured.

Contact our advisors today if you still have any questions about how to make a claim for a car accident. Additionally, our advisors could offer you free legal advice regarding your specific claim. However, there is no obligation to start a claim after speaking with them.

Car Accident Compensation

car crash claims

You may have used our compensation calculator to get an estimate of how much your claim could be worth. However, a calculator may not consider every item that could be included within your claim. In this section we are going to explore the factors that could affect your car accident compensation.

General Damages

If your claim is successful, general damages is paid out for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries. When assigning a value to injuries, legal professionals use a text called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them. It contains a list of guideline compensation amounts for various injuries.

Examples of figures from the JCG are included in our table. As each claim is different, we cannot provide you with an exact figure based on your circumstances. Therefore, please only use our table as a guide.

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Injury Notes Amount
Paraplegia The presence and extent of pain, life expectancy and degree of independence will affect how much is awarded. £219,070 to £284,260
Leg Injury – Amputations (iv) One leg has been amputated below the knee. £97,980 to £132,990
Brain Damage – Moderate (iii) The person’s memory and concentration will have been affected, and they will suffer a small risk of epilepsy. £43,060 to £90,720
Knee Injury – Severe (ii) A leg fracture that has extended into the knee joint and causes constant pain with limited movement. £52,120 to £69,730
Neck Injury – Severe (iii) Ruptured tendons, soft tissue injuries, dislocations or fractures that lead to a permanent significant disability. £45,470 to £55,990
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – Moderate Despite suffering with various issues, the person will have made a large recovery with any persisting effects not being majorly disabling. £8,180 to £23,150
Arm Injury A simple forearm fracture. £6,610 to £19,200
One or more whiplash injuries Symptoms persist for between 15-18 months. £3,005
One or more whiplash injuries Symptoms persist for between 18-24 months. £4,215

Special Damages

In addition to general damages, special damages may be included in your compensation for a car accident. Special damages recover any expenses you incurred as a result of your injuries. However, it is likely that you will need to submit proof. For example, wage slips, receipts or invoices.

Examples of costs that could be recovered in a car accident claim can include:

  • Repairs and replacements of property damaged in the accident. This includes repairs to your car.
  • Loss of earnings for any time you needed off work to recover.
  • Medical expenses. For example, the cost of physical therapy or prescription costs.

As well as claiming general and special damages you could also pursue an excess claim. This would mean claiming back the excess on your insurance policy.

Whiplash Injuries

If you suffered whiplash injuries as an adult passenger or driver and these are valued at £5,000 or lower you must claim in a different way. This is due to the Whiplash Reform Programme. Additionally, when making your claim for whiplash injuries this way they will be assigned value from the tariff laid out in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.

Not everyone who suffered injuries in a road traffic accident will claim in this way. For example, you may have sustained other injuries that take the total value of your claim over £5,000. However, even if you do not claim this way, your whiplash injuries will be valued in line with the tariff because they apply to all vehicle occupants. Any other injuries not included in the tariff will be valued in the traditional way.

For further information about the whiplash reforms, please get in touch with our advisors. Additionally, if you would like a free claim valuation, call our advisors.

How Do Insurance Excess Fees Work?

We will use the example insurance excess amount of £100. If you have an accident where the cost of the repair is £1,100, your insurance provider will ask you to pay for the first £100 of the repair. The remainder (£1,000) will be paid by the insurance provider. The insurance provider could ask you to pay the first £100 or withhold this from any payments to a third party. All insurance policies will include a compulsory excess, some will also include the further, voluntary excess.

If You Have An Accident Which Is Not Your Fault, Do You Still Pay An Excess?

Insurance excess is the amount of money which is either held back by an insurance company or which you have to pay in the event of making a claim. Even in the event of a car accident, not my fault, you will still need to pay this amount. The cash figure for this will vary according to your vehicle, policy, cover, the number of years driving and whether or not you have protected your no claims bonus. Some policies also allow you to add a further car accident voluntary excess, reducing the cost of your insurance.

You will pay the excess in the event of any claim you need to make against your insurance policy. This is regardless of whether or not you were to blame for the accident. If it is proven that the other party was responsible for the accident and that you were not at fault, you can recover the cost of this ‘excess’ payment from their insurance policy. This can be done on its own, or as part of a car accident claim.

How To Claim The Excess Fee From The Other Party

You can claim the non-fault car accident excess back from the other party. This will often be done by your insurance company working with the third parties insurance provider. If you have difficulty recovering this, you can go to court to claim this back from the other party’s insurance provider.

How To Claim Back Your Insurance Excess

If you are wondering how to claim back your insurance excess, you could do so under special damages.

Although legal assistance is not required, a solicitor could help you make an excess claim. We would recommend that you choose solicitors who have the experience and know how to claim back your insurance excess.

Our solicitors at Legal Expert have helped clients make successful excess claims in the past and may be able to help you. If you get in touch with our advisors, they can offer a no-obligation initial consultation so they can assess your eligibility to claim.

No Win No Fee Insurance Excess Claims

A conditional fee agreement or no win no fee services is provided on the basis that if your claim is unsuccessful, then you will not have to pay anything for your solicitor’s services. No win no fee agreements are helpful for those who are worried about affording upfront costs. A no win no fee agreement ensures that there are no nasty surprises for claimants.

How Legal Expert Can Help

As mentioned, you may still have to pay an excess if an accident was not your fault. However, our experienced solicitors at Legal Expert can help you claim back your insurance excess fee and any additional premiums and costs you had faced if you had claimed for repairs through your insurance.

If you get in touch with our advisors today, they could potentially connect you with one of our specialist road traffic accident solicitors. To learn more about how we could help you, you can reach out to an adviser now by:

Useful Links

We also have some other guides on car accident claims that you may find useful:

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    • Patrick Mallon

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.

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