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Gathering evidence and claiming expenses on top of your compensation claim, insurance company dirty tricks departments, buying disability and mobility equipment
Remember keep receipts when purchasing the equipment that you need. It is wise to note on each major purchase the evidence that has led you to buy that particular item. For example a mobility problem requiring the adaptation of a car for wheelchairs will start from the premise that if you are paraplegic or an amputee then a larger than average sized car was required to enable a hoist to be installed for the powerchair to be transported about in.
Start of article about
claiming expenses after an accident.
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gathering evidence.
If you enter into a credit agreement the interest is not claimable. So you may want to take out an Interest Free Credit arrangement. This will show that you have purchased the equipment and at the same time you will be able to claim all the money back. The retailer is happy and so are you.
Interestingly, the law views credit arrangements as actually spending of cash. The reason being that you have entered into a contract which will be honoured by each side to the contract. So they will allow you to claim this as a justifiable expense. A case that we were involved in had this exact scenario. The interesting part was that the company who undertook to deliver the goods and service agreed to defer the delivery until building work was carried out. The building work was carried out 3 years after the case ended. As the credit agreement had been entered into the whole of the money was claimable ie over £10,000. This money would have otherwise been lost to the claimant but for the fact that Mentor Experiences advised the claimant.
We cannot give you a list of things that are and are not claimable as each and every case is different. However in very serious cases the list can be very long indeed.
However items could include a digital camcorder/camera because you will need to record the evidence of lifestyle eg holidays, how equipment does NOT fit into the old car and how it DOES fit into the new car. Recording of wounds, of problems that you regularly come across and of evidence you want to show your solicitor of the positive difference that a particular piece of equipment has made to your life. The judge will be most impressed that the money he allocates is going to make that positive change for the better after you have suffered so much.
You may need an up to date computer system and a printer as the volume of work that will need to be undertaken by you or your loved one on your behalf to keep up to speed with the paperwork that will surely come your way and to record the evidence from the other equipment you have bought. Ink and paper will significantly increase from your pre accident usage and should be claimed for.
Information regarding your new lifestyle may be hard to come by. Certainly any fees paid to Lifestyle Consultants such as the personal services of Mentor Experiences should be claimed for. In addition the more normal routes for information such as disability magazines, membership to organisations and CD's and books, including ebooks are all claimable. The membership of these should be kept for the entire time you have a case outstanding and some you will definitely want to continue after the case has ended. Some will only ever be one offs but still worthwhile to purchase.
Mentor Experiences recommend some books, and organisations and these will be indicated at an appropriate link. Your support is welcomed on these links and on our adverts as they help us continue our work and maintaining of this site.
It is unimportant whether or not you receive compensation for these items. It is essential in our view that you and your family take positive steps to gain information on your condition in order to overcome your own ignorance.
No-one is going to tell you everything regarding your condition. You learn snippets here and there. So you come to the conclusion, eventually, that some wastage is inevitable when seeking to transform your life post accident.
The camcorder/camera was needed to record the numerous injuries and evidential situations that we found as my husband and I went about our lives. An example being when we tried to fit a powered wheelchair into the back of our Vauxhall Zafira. The wheelchair fitted, just, but left no room for anyone else in the family to sit in the car. One image downloaded on our new computer system bought for the purpose and sent to my solicitor and printed for my husband's own file solved the problem. A more suitable car was then bought. We did not receive the full cost for all these items. They were needed so we bought them as my husband did not have them previously. 50% of the cost was received for the computer system and 50% for the camcorder/camera. The full cost for the car and replacements and running costs were costed into the final claim. The support that the up to date computer system gave us was indescribable, it transformed the way we handled the workload that came our way. Running a serious personal injury case is a time consuming event.
Gathering evidence for the solicitors report for an injury claim
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