Have you been assaulted or attacked in the UK within the past 2 years? If the answer is yes, and you have suffered a personal injury as a result of the attack, you may be entitled to make a no win no fee criminal injury compensation claim.
Although it is possible to make a criminal injury compensation claim against the actual person that attacked you, in most cases an attack claim is made through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is a government funded scheme which was set up to provide compensation to people who suffer physical and psychological injuries as a result of violent crimes.
To make a criminal injury claim through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, the attack must have happened in either England, Wales or Scotland. It is important that the police are notified about the attack as soon as possible, and that you co-operate fully with the police investigation. Compensation for criminal injuries may be reduced or withheld if you have behaved inappropriately before or during the incident, such as by taunting the attacker.
Unlike most personal injury compensation claims which have a three year deadline within which to make the claim, a criminal injury claim made through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority must be made within 2 years from the date of the attack. If you were the victim of an attack over two years ago, you may still be able to make a criminal injury compensation claim if there are special circumstances for the delay in making the claim. This is down to the discretion of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, and a late application is only likely to be accepted if it is judged reasonable and in the interests of justice to do so.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority can award compensation amounts between £1000 to £500,000. This means the injuries you have sustained through an attack must be judged serious enough to be valued at £1000 or more. Therefore if you have only suffered a very minor injury which has completely recovered within a few weeks, it is unlikely you would be able to make a criminal injury compensation claim through the CICA.
There is a common misconception that criminal injury compensation can only be awarded if a person has actually been convicted. However this is not the case. You may still be eligible for criminal injury compensation if the attacker has not been convicted, and even if the attacker has never been traced. As long as you have co-operated fully with the police investigation into the attack, you should still be eligible to make a compensation claim.
If you have been the victim of a violent crime within the past two years and have suffered injuries as a result, you may be entitled to make a criminal injury compensation claim. Contact the National Accident Helpline on freephone 0800 6783 601 or complete our online personal injury claim form.
