Can You Claim For A Car Accident Without An Injury?

By Jo Greenwood. Last updated 11th July 2023. In this guide, we look at whether you could make a claim after a car accident despite not suffering an injury. To be able to make a personal injury claim, you need to prove that you have suffered an injury due to another road user breaching their duty of care. If you have not suffered an injury, you will not be able to make a personal injury claim.

However, later in this guide, we will look at how to make a car insurance claim for vehicle damage. We will also discuss whether you could make a claim for stress and anxiety after a car accident. Additionally, we will discuss the benefits of making a personal injury claim with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.

If you would like to discuss what happens after a car accident, or if you have any other questions regarding your car accident claim, you can get in touch with one of our advisors. Our friendly team is available 24/7 to help you and offer free advice.

Contact an advisor today:

• Call on 0800 073 8804
• Start your claim online.
• Use our live chat at the bottom of your screen

Car accident without an injury

Select A Section

1. What Is A Car Accident Without An Injury?
2. What Should You Do After A Car Accident In Which No One Was Injured?
3. When And How To Tell Your Insurance Provider About A Car Accident
4. Can Someone Else Request Your Insurance details?
5. Can I Claim If There Was No Injury?
6. Compensation Payouts For Car Accident Claims
7. Special Damages You Could Claim If Injured
8. No Win No Fee Claims If Injured In A Car Accident

What Is A Car Accident Without An Injury?

According to the government’s statistics, in 2019, there were 216,381 vehicles involved in road accidents in the UK. While some of these may have caused injuries to road users, some may not have.

Further government statistics reveal that in 2019, there were 153,315 casualties reported in road traffic accidents, which represents a significantly lower figure than the number of vehicles involved.

Road traffic accidents could occur in a number of different ways. If you’re in an accident that wasn’t your fault, it could have happened due to:

• Another driver’s failure to stop
• Tailgating
• A driver not paying due care and attention to the road
• Drink/drug driving
• Dangerous overtaking
• Failure to judge speed and position
• Unsafe use of a roundabout

These are just a few examples of accidents that may or may not cause injury. While you cannot make a personal injury claim for a car accident without an injury, you may be able to claim against insurance for damage to your vehicle and property.

What Is The Car Accident Claims Time Limit?

As we have previously stated, you must have suffered a physical or psychological injury to be able to make a personal injury claim. If you are eligible to make a compensation claim, you must adhere to the personal injury claims time limit. Under the Limitation Act 1980, you will generally have 3 years to start your claim. This runs from the date of the accident.

There are certain exceptions to this limitation period. For example, the time limit is temporarily frozen for those under the age of 18. From their 18th birthday, they will have 3 years to start a claim. However, prior to this date, a litigation friend could make a claim on their behalf.

To learn more about the other exceptions to this 3-year time limit for car accident claims, you can contact our advisors. They can also provide you with free advice on whether you could make a claim if you have not suffered an injury.

What Should You Do After A Car Accident In Which No One Was Injured?

The actions we advise you take after a car accident that has caused damage to property or people are as follows:

• Stop your vehicle (it is an offence not to stop at the scene of an accident)
• Switch your engine off
• Put your hazard lights on
• Check for injury to yourself and any passengers you’re carrying
• Make a note of the fact that there aren’t any injuries to anyone or damage to vehicles in case a claim is put in. Take photos too.
• If someone is hurt or the road is blocked, call the emergency services
• Don’t admit fault until you are completely sure of what has happened. Shock and adrenaline could distort your thoughts and this could protect you from liability if the accident was not your fault.
• Take photographs of the vehicles and the scene if possible
• Take the details of any witnesses and the driver involved, as well as their insurance details

If no one has been hurt and there doesn’t appear to be damage to vehicles, you should still inform the police of the accident within 24 hours of it occurring. If you don’t report an accident, you could be fined and may receive points on your licence.

Criminal Offences After An Accident

Failure to stop after an accident that has caused property damage or injury and failure to report an accident could be considered criminal offences. You may be found guilty of either a failure to stop or a failure to report. In some cases, you could be found guilty of both.

The penalties you could get for each offence could be up to £5,000. You could also receive 5-10 penalty points on your licence. In some cases, the courts could even have to power to disqualify you from driving.

When And How To Tell Your Insurance Provider About A Car Accident

You should inform your insurance company about a car accident you’ve been involved in, even if it wasn’t your fault and you don’t intend to claim. If you’re not intending on making a claim, you should make sure to tell them you are making an ‘information only’ report.

This could ensure that your insurer doesn’t settle a claim with the insurance company of another driver without your knowledge.

How Do You Tell Your Insurance Provider About A Car Accident?

Whether the accident was or was not your fault, your policy documents should show you how the accident should be reported. Some insurers ask you to fill in forms and send them by post, while others have online claims portals or forms to fill in. Some prefer you to report a car accident by telephone and then will send you a form to fill in.

Whichever way you report your car accident to your insurer, you should ensure that all the facts are reported fully. You may need to include details of the road conditions, the other vehicle involved and any insurance details of the other driver.

If you are not making a claim for a car accident without an injury, you should make sure to write a letter to the insurer, and keep a copy, telling them the report is for information only.

Can Someone Else Request Your Insurance Details?

If you were involved in a car accident, then even if you don’t believe you were at fault, you have to give your insurance details to someone if they believe you were responsible for the accident. This would be the case even if there were no injuries to either party.

The other party could request your insurance details after the accident, either right away or later on, and you have to provide them with these details. It is an offence not to do so unless you have a reasonable excuse.

One example of what could constitute a reasonable excuse would be if you were injured at the time of asking and could not provide this information.

Can I Claim If There Was No Injury?

If you have sustained no injuries at all in an accident that was not your fault, you cannot make a personal injury claim. Personal injury claims are designed to compensate you for pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by injuries sustained in an accident you were not at fault for.

How Much Compensation For Anxiety After Car Accident Could I Claim?

As mentioned, however, you may have sustained injuries that did not show symptoms right away after the accident.

Conditions such as whiplash may take some time to show symptoms and could cause you pain and suffering. In addition to this, you might suffer psychological harm in a car crash in which you sustained no physical injuries.

In such cases, you would have to attend a medical assessment as part of any personal injury claim so that your injuries could be assessed and verified, and a medical report could be put together to evidence your claim.

Compensation Payouts For Car Accident Claims

You might be surprised to see that we’ve included an alternative to a car accident claims calculator in this guide. After all, it is meant to cover making a claim for a car accident without an injury.

However, as we have mentioned, some injuries don’t present right away after an accident. If you’ve sustained injuries such as psychological trauma or whiplash, for example, you may only notice symptoms after some time has passed.

How Much Compensation For A Car Accident In The UK Could I Receive?

The table below contains guideline compensation amounts from the Judicial College Guidelines, which we believe is a good alternative to using a personal injury claims calculator. If you cannot see an injury you’ve sustained below, please call us and we’ll be able to offer you further insight.

Special Damages You Could Claim If Injured

As we’ve explained, you cannot make a personal injury claim for a car accident without an injury, but if your injury has presented symptoms some time afterwards, and you are looking to make a personal injury claim, you could be eligible to claim special damages.

These relate to financial losses caused by your injuries. They could include:

• Care costs
• Income losses
• Medical expenses
• Travel costs

To make a claim for these and other expenses incurred because of your injuries, you’d have to provide evidence. Documents such as payslips, receipts and bank statements could be useful in helping you evidence these expenses. If you don’t have proof of the expenses you’ve sustained, you won’t be able to include them within your claim.

No Win No Fee Claims If Injured In A Car Accident

While you cannot make a personal injury claim for a car accident without an injury, if an injury has presented itself after the accident, and you could prove it was caused by the accident, you could make a personal injury claim.

While you could make a claim without a personal injury solicitor to help you, claiming after the event could be quite complicated, and you may prefer to have a legal professional on your side.

The great news is that you could use the services of a personal injury solicitor from Legal Expert without having to pay them until your compensation settlement has been paid out. All of our solicitors work under No Win No Fee payment terms, which means there would be no legal fees to pay upfront or during the process of your claim.

You would be asked to sign a Conditional Fee Agreement in order to begin your claim. Your solicitor would send this to you and it would explain the success fee you’d pay them if they achieved a settlement for you. This is a legally capped amount and would usually be a small portion of your eventual settlement.

If a compensation settlement wasn’t achieved, you wouldn’t pay your lawyer the success fee. In addition to this, you wouldn’t be expected to pay their costs.

If you’d like us to assess your case to see if you could make a No Win No Fee claim, or if you have any questions, simply call our advisors today. We’ll be happy to help you.

Start Your Claim

Getting advice on car accident injury compensation couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is get in touch and we’ll provide you with all the help and support you could need. You can reach us in a number of ways:

• By telephone: 0800 073 8804
• By e-mail: info@legalexpert.co.uk
• Via Live Messenger
• Or, by completing the contact form