Help with starting a new claim

Official Injury Claim are not a legal service or compensator, and as such do not make any decisions on your claim, all decisions made on a claim are made by the compensator handling your claim. Official Injury Claim are unable to give advice on what actions should be made on a claim, as an unrepresented claimant this is up to yourself. The role of Official Injury Claim is to assist you if you have any difficulties in using the portal or any queries when using the portal during your claim journey and answer any questions you may have about the claims process.

Before you start your claim you should have the following available: 

- The first and last name of the driver you feel is responsible. 

- The UK vehicle registration number of the vehicle you feel is responsible for the accident and any other vehicles involved. 

- The UK vehicle registration number of the vehicle you were in or it's make, model and colour.

- The name of any witnesses and, if available, their phone number, email and address.

- If a bus passenger, and you feel the bus driver was at fault, you will require the first and last name of the bus driver, and the UK vehicle registration of the bus.

- An estimate of the value of any losses or fees you would like to claim back. 

- Your National Insurance number.

- If the police attended the scene, the name and address of the police station, name of the reporting officer and Police Reference Number if available.

- Any supporting documentation to upload (for example receipts or reports). It's important to remember that you may not get any compensation for damages or losses that you don't have any supporting documentation for.

There is no fixed time for completing your claim. The time it takes for your claim might depend on how quickly fault for the accident is established or agreed and how quickly you recover from your injury or injuries. Here is an idea of how long each stage may take: 

- Start your claim - 20 to 30 minutes .

- Investigations – Once a compensator has been identified and confirmed the compensator has up to 30 business days (6 weeks) to consider their position on fault for the accident although they may do this much more quickly. 

- Medical - It might take a few weeks to organise your medical examination and receive a report. Most claims will only require one report, but some might need more which will take longer. 

- Offer - Once you are in a position to ask for an offer, the compensator has 20 business days (4 weeks) to make a first offer. 

- Close claim - Once you have agreed a final settlement, payment should be made within 10 business days (2 weeks). 

When you make a claim for compensation for personal injuries following a road traffic accident, court proceedings must be issued within a 3-year time period (also known as the limitation time period). The limitation time period is calculated based on the following conditions:  

- If you were above 18 years of age at the time of the accident, then the 3-year time period is calculated from the date of the accident 

- If you were below 18 years of age at the time of the accident, then the 3-year time period is calculated from the day you turn 18 

- If you do not start court proceedings within the limitation time period, you may lose your right to claim for a compensation. Therefore, if you are approaching the end of the limitation period, then you should start court proceedings for limitation in order to protect your right to the claim. 

Official Injury Claim is intended for an unrepresented claimant to submit a claim. As an alternative to making and managing your own claim, you may wish to seek the assistance of claims management companies or legal representatives who are authorised to submit a claim on your behalf.

No, Official Injury Claim does not permit the submission of claims by McKenzie friends or personal representatives. A McKenzie friend is defined as person who supports a litigant in person in a court of law by prompting, taking notes and quietly giving advice. They need not be legally trained or have any professional legal qualifications. As an alternative to making and managing your own claim, you may wish to seek the assistance of claims management companies or legal representatives who are authorised to submit a claim on your behalf.

Yes. The full name and UK vehicle registration number of the driver you feel is responsible for the accident is required to claim through Official Injury Claim. If you are unable to obtain this information, you will need to seek additional advice from a solicitor, law firm, authorised claims management company or an organisation providing consumer advice.

Yes. You will need to obtain the full name and UK registration number of the driver you feel is responsible for the accident to make a claim through Official Injury Claim. If you are unable to obtain this information, you will need to seek additional advice from a solicitor, law firm, authorised claims management company or an organisation providing consumer advice.

Yes. If you feel the bus driver is responsible for the accident, you will need to obtain their full name and the UK vehicle registration number of the bus. If you are unable to obtain this information, you will need to seek additional advice from a solicitor, law firm, authorised claims management company or an organisation providing consumer advice.

No, Official Injury Claim is only suitable to claim for accidents that have happened in England or Wales. You will need to seek additional advice from a solicitor, law firm, authorised claims management company or an organisation providing consumer advice.

The responsibility is upon you as the claimant to take the appropriate action to progress your claim through the portal.

You are able to submit a claim for personal injury and any losses and fees you may have incurred. Examples of these can be found here on pages 14, 21 and 22. You may be required to provide receipts for any losses and fees. Most compensators will ask for them so you should keep copies.

A small summary of common injuries following a road traffic accident can be found on pages 54-62 in the Guide to Making a Claim, to help you assess the value of your injuries.

If your personal injury claim is worth more than £5,000, or your claim (including injury and other protocol damages) is worth more than £10,000, then you will not be able to claim through Official Injury Claim and will need to seek additional advice from a solicitor, law firm, authorised claims management company or an organisation providing consumer advice.

As part of the claims capture process, the askCUE PI database is queried to confirm if you have had any previous claims for personal injury. The Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) is a central database of motor, home, personal injury and industrial illness incidents reported to insurance companies which may or may not have given rise to a claim.

If there are askCUE results you do not recognise and you wish to find out what information is held about you on the CUE database, please contact us.

This is to confirm your identity. Please answer the questions to the best of your ability, the information is not stored.

Yes. Losses or fees can be added during the make a claim process when on the 'tell us about your claim' screen under the section 'other items you want to claim'.

You can use the back-link function on the top left hand side of each screen to go back and make changes to your answers. You will also see a final check your answer screen before sending your claim to the compensator where you can change your answers. Once the claim has been submitted you will be able to amend your contact details but cannot change any of your other answers as they are auto-populated onto the Small Claims Notification Form.

Once the claim has been submitted the only details that can be changed are your contact details (name, address, contact telephone number, email address and your contact preferences). You will not be able to change any of your other answers as they are auto-populated onto the Small Claims Notification Form. If you have made an error, please contact us to discuss whether you would need to withdraw and re-submit your claim.

The compensator is the insurer/representative of the person you feel is at fault for the accident. If the person you feel is at fault is uninsured, the compensator will be the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB).

The compensator.

File types/Description
AVI - Audio video interleave
WMV - Windows media video
MOV and QT- QuickTime format
MK - Matroska open-standard multimedia format 
MP4 - MPEG-4 Part 14 Video file
AVCHD - Advanced Video Coding High Definition
BMP - Bitmap
JPEG/JPG - Joint Photographic Experts Group
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
PNG - Portable Network Graphics
PDF - Portable Document Format
DOC/DOCX/ODT - MS Word
TXT - Text file
RTF - Rich text format
HTM / HTML - www format
PPT / PPTX - MS Power Point
XLS / XLSX - MS Excel
EML, MSG, PST - Email message

Please note: The file size limited is 30MB

You do not need to do anything, this is for your information only. If any of the information is not correct please contact the compensator.