No matter under what circumstances you have sustained a ligament injury, in order to make claims for ligament injury compensation in Ireland, the accident in which you suffered the injury must be the result of the carelessness of somebody who owed you a reasonable duty of care. This does not mean that person had to be physically present at the time of your ligament injury in order to claim compensation for a ligament injury – just that their negligence was the reason why your ligament injury took place.
Often, it may not even be one person against whom a ligament injury claim for compensation is made. Compensation claims for ligament injuries can be made against corporate bodies, local councils and State agencies who have failed in their duty of care to protect you from foreseeable risks and, once it is established that the incident in which your ligament was injured could have been prevented had greater care been taken by one of these “third parties”, you will be eligible to make a claim for injuring a ligament and recover compensation for your injury.
Establishing Negligence in a Claim for injuring a ligament
In most scenarios, the procedure for making compensation claims for ligament injuries in Ireland is to submit an application for assessment to the Injuries Board; who will then contact the person(s) named on your application and request their consent to proceed with an assessment of your ligament injury claim for compensation. The assessment of ligament injury compensation is only performed when consent from the “respondent” has been granted.
At this point, there is no need for you to submit evidence of negligence in support of a claim for injuring a ligament; however, in the event that the respondent declines their consent, you may then have to pursue compensation for a ligament injury through the courts. Court action is not always necessary, as many claims for ligament injury compensation in Ireland are resolved by negotiation; however, in order to get a satisfactory resolution of your claim for injuring a ligament, it is in your best interests that negligence is established before an injury claim is started.
In order for a party to be considered liable for your ligament injury, it has to be proven that they owed you a “duty of care” and were in breach of that duty of care when your ligament was injured. For example, the driver of a car has a duty of care to avoid creating an accident, an employer has a duty of care to provide a safe environment in which to work to their employees and places of public access have a duty of care to avert hazards which may result in an accident in which a ligament injury is sustained.
However, this duty of care is not always “absolute”. This means, for example, that if you injured your ligament after slipping and falling in a shop on liquid that had just been spilled by the shopper immediately in front of you, and the shop staff had not had a “reasonable” period of time in which to identify and remove the hazard, you would not be justified in seeking compensation for a ligament injury.
Making Compensation Claims for Ligament Injuries
The process for making compensation claims for ligament injuries in Ireland is to submit an application for assessment to the Injuries Board. This can be done using a hard copy of the Assessment Form A or by making your application for the assessment of compensation for a ligament injury online (except in the case of ligament injury compensation claims for children). Your doctor´s medical assessment of your ligament injury (Assessment Form B) should also be included with your application for assessment and receipts for any financial expenses you are seeking.
Once the Injuries Board Ireland obtains confirmation from the negligent party to continue with an assessment, you may need to undergo a further medical examination to determine the extent of your ligament injury – after which the Injuries Board will issue a “Notice of Assessment” informing you and the negligent party which is liable of how much they have assessed your claim for injuring a ligament to be worth. If both you and the negligent party can confirm the Injuries Board´s assessment of your ligament injury claim for compensation, an “Order to Pay” is issued and your claim will be settled by the insurance company of the negligent party.
Compensation Claim for Injuring a Ligament: Summary
No two compensation claims for ligament injuries in Ireland are exactly alike – regardless of how similar the circumstances of the accident were – and you are always advised to discuss your accident and ligament injury with a solicitor at the earliest possible opportunity. A solicitor will be able to help with potential issues such as determining liability for your ligament injury, gathering evidence of negligence on your behalf and ensuring that your application for the assessment of ligament injury compensation to the Injuries Board properly reflects the consequences that your injured ligament has made to your quality of life.
A ligament injury can often be a debilitating experience, and although no amount of compensation for a ligament injury can ever make up for the negligence of the person who was to blame for your injury, it costs nothing to find out whether you have a ligament injury claim for compensation which it is worth your while to pursue. Because of this, you are advised to discuss your eligibility to make a compensation claim for injuring a ligament with a solicitor at the first available opportunity.