02. What is a personal injury?

Any injury you suffer may seem personal, but in legal terms, a personal injury is where a person, company or some other organisation is to blame (at least partly) for your injuries. They may have been 'negligent', which means the person or organisation did not take proper care in the way something was:

• done;  
• made; or  
• repaired.

If someone is negligent, they may have to pay you compensation for your injuries.

A personal injury can happen, for example:

• at work;  
• in a traffic accident;  
• because of a faulty product;  
• because of a mistake during medical treatment;  
• because you were a victim of a crime; or  
• because you tripped on a paving stone or slipped on a wet floor in a shop.

An injury may be psychological as well as physical, so you might be able to get compensation for distress or upset after an accident as well as for the physical injury.

What you should do first
If you have been hurt, you will first need to deal with the shock and distress you may be feeling. After that, you may want to get compensation or support to deal with the injury or its after-effects. Whatever you do later on, there are two things you should do straight away:

• You should visit your doctor so they can take a look at your injury, even if it was not serious. This is because, if you later go to court to claim compensation, your doctor's records will be independent evidence of your injury.  
• You should collect evidence about the accident. For example, you could take photos of a damaged paving stone which caused you to trip over. Write down details of the accident as soon as you can, while they are still fresh in your mind. If anyone saw what happened to you, get their name and address.

If your accident happened at work
You should tell your employer about the accident straight away. By law, your employer must keep a record of most types of accident. If you are self-employed, you must do this yourself. You or your employer should also report the accident to the Incident Contact Centre, which will pass the report on to the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority environmental health department, if this is necessary. See 'Further Help' for how to contact the Incident Contact Centre.

If you do not think that your employer will record the accident properly, write to them, giving brief details of the accident, and keep a copy for yourself.

If you want to apply for certain types of benefit after an accident at work (for example, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit), you must fill in a special form, which you can get from your local Jobcentre Plus office.

If your accident was a road accident
If you are hurt in a road accident, you must tell the police and (if your car was involved) your insurance company. The insurance company may refuse to pay out if you don't report the accident.

If your accident was during medical treatment
If you were injured when being treated, for example, by a doctor or in hospital, the law and what you should do can be different. See the Community Legal Service leaflet 'Medical accidents' for advice and information.