Fatal Injury Accidents

Losing someone you love is the hardest thing to go through in life and sadly it’s an experience that all of us will go through at some point in our lifetime. Having someone taken away from us through the fault of another party alters our lives emotionally and financially.

The term Fatal Injury Accident is used when a person fall’s victim to an accident that was through no fault of their own, which is the cause of said person’s death. A Fatal Injury Accident can unfortunately occur across a range of avenues such as:

• Road Traffic
• Work
• Public Places
• Hazardous Substances
• Poisoning
• Medical negligence
• Animal Attack

When someone dies as a result of a fatal injury accident, compensation can be claimed in two parts, the first part being the deceased’s claim. This compensation covers the physical and emotional pain and distress that the deceased sustained from the time of the accident to the time of death. However compensation cannot be claimed if the victim of an accident died immediately or never regained consciousness. There is little or no compensation given in these circumstances as the pain and suffering is minimal.

The other part of a compensation claim following a Fatal Injury Accident is compensation for the deceased’s relatives when the victim’s death was through a wrongful act, medical negligence or somebody else’s fault. Under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976, claims can be made by an individual for the deceased; this individual must either be the deceased’s spouse, live in partner for over two years, children, parents, acting children or parents, grandchildren or grandparents. The compensation that these named people will be claiming covers a portion of the deceased contributions to earnings that wouldn’t have been spent on themselves, money for services that the deceased provided, such as:

• Childcare
• Domestic assistance
• Gardening
• DIY

Compensation claimed by the deceased’s relatives also covers funeral expenses.

As well as compensation claims, the deceased’s spouse or parents are entitled to claim for a statutory sum of bereavement pay. This sum of money can be up to £10,000. It is advised that you speak to a personal injury solicitor for free, no obligation legal advise so it can be determined whether you have a strong chance of having a successful claim for compensation.

A claim for Fatal Injury compensation can be complex as there as many factors to be taken into consideration, this is especially the case when the claim involves victims who were self-employed, directors of owned management businesses and professional persons. The value of the claim can be substantial and each case must be considered individually.

In 2006/07 the number of workers fatally injured was 241. This figure mainly reflects occupations of an agriculture and construction nature. In 2005/06 the number of people who were fatally injured in work related injury was 217, which is the lowest number on record. There were also 90 members of the public fatally injured in 2006/07.

Compensation won’t take away the pain of losing a loved one, nor will it make the grieving process any easier or faster. Fatal Injury Compensation is put in place to ease the money trouble that you really don’t need after losing someone close.