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Compensation claim trial procedures, going to court to make your claim for accident compensation and ensuring you receive the maximum support available through the legal system
Calamity has struck! Now what do you do?
In the immediate hours after an accident you will naturally rush to the bedside of the person involved in the accident. Most right thinking people are not thinking about the consequences of the accident.
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At some stage however someone has to pick up the pieces and attempt to make some sort of order from the chaos.
Mentor Experiences have designed a simple model to follow in your attempts to regain your life, routine and for you to adapt to your new reality.
We wish we could answer your questions directly at the time, but unfortunately you are probably reading this days if not weeks and months after the event. However, the lesson is important at any time you come to read it.
Remember this important mnemonic: C.O.W. Casualty, Order and Win.
C is for Casualty. Your first concern must be towards your loved one and the treatment that he or she is receiving in hospital.
Please refer to the Hospital document for more information. It will give a layman's answer to a bewildering situation.
O is for Order. Your world will be upturned. It's a bit like throwing a large boulder into a pond. At first there is a huge splash, next many waves and ripples in the water and finally the pond stills again into the calm tranquil situation it had previously.
Your objective here is to achieve that calmness again.
Consider what you have to do around the home. The writer's wife stayed at his bedside 24 hours a day to ensure he was getting the best care medical and nursing care available. The downside was that she was exhausted by the time the danger had passed.
Partners of those in the hospital must get some rest. Make arrangements that your children or other family commitments you may have are being looked after. This may even mean buying in some temporary care arrangements if you cannot call upon family members or friends. This would be a justifiable expense as long as it were reasonable.
Your work and employer is also other areas that will have to be considered. Most employers have a policy to cover emergencies. If they haven't they should.
It is not reasonable for an employer to disallow a temporary leave of absence when a loved one has had such a serious injury. Any of your losses, wages for example, will be covered and reclaimed in the case. Remember to write down what losses that are occurring.
Getting support structures in place at home is a priority once the decision to get your loved one out of the hospital. The staff in the hospital have systems in place for you to get home. It is important though that there should not be an unsafe discharge. You may have to point this out to staff as the pressure to move patients to the home is a constant worry in hospital administration. Getting loved one home and to then find out there is no way to safely bath or get up stairs defeats the object of getting home.
Simple aids to getting around the home, handrails on stairs, hoists or other equipment to aid bathing or equipment in the kitchen and equipment to help you in and out of bed, all these should be in place before you are allowed home. The list is not exhaustive and you are the expert for your own home as to what would be needed in the short term. I am sure you will soon catch on to what is required in your own particular circumstances. For the long term however there is much more to consider. Long term adaptations are very costly and what is actually need in your particular case would need careful consideration. The information on this website regarding house adaptation and design is very worthy of consideration. Quite literally it could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.
Mentor Experiences have the solution to this problem and much more is explained in the relevant section. Once you have reached this stage of your fight for just compensation though, you are well and truly committed to changing your life for the better.
Your personal financial situation will at some stage be looked at by the Social Services Department of your local authority. Theoretically, if you don't have money or resources adaptations will be undertaken for you at public expense. The reality however is much different, budgets are a constant problem for local service providers and managers don't allow large sums of money to be spent willingly. Therefore it is crucial that money is sought to undertake all the adaptations that are required otherwise you will be spending money that is potentially given for other areas. There is a trap here of having too much to receive public funding, but not enough to undertake the adaptations that are necessary. Mentor Experience will show you the traps and how to avoid them.
No Win No Fee accident compensation claim solicitors
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