What Are Interim Payments In Personal Injury Compensation Claims?
Posted on 17th July 2020
When you are making a Personal Injury or Medical Negligence Compensation Claim, you may find that your personal injury solicitors ask if you require an interim payment of any personal injury compensation that you are to be awarded. An interim payment, is when you receive part of your compensation settlement early, before your final payment amount has been fully and finally agreed.
In some cases, people who are pursing Personal Injury or Medical Negligence Compensation Claims can have such severe injuries that they are unable to work fully or as much as they would normally work. This, sadly, can cause the injured party to have a loss of earnings, through no fault of their own. In addition, the injured party have need to have treatment for their injuries or require rehabilitation, such as physiotherapy or counselling, which may need to be paid for privately, but claimed as part of their compensation.
If you find yourself in these circumstances, you may find that your financial circumstances become tight, and extremely difficult to manage. As a result, our Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors often find that injured parties approach us, feeling pressured into agreeing a settlement, just to receive their compensation and alleviate their financial struggles. This is when our Personal Injury Compensation solicitors would ask our clients to try and hold off accepting any old offer; whilst it can seem tempting to receive some settlement there and then, you may not receive the full amount of compensation that you are entitled to as offers are often make “in full and final settlement” of any future claims you may have.
Therefore, it’s imperative that the extent of your injuries and losses are assessed and dealt with, without putting you in a difficult situation financially. One way to circumvent any financial issues that you may be having, could be for our team of expert Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors to request an interim payment.
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What is an Interim Payment and How Does it Work?
As explained above, an interim payment is best explained as a payment on account of your full compensation. What this means is that you will receive part of your compensation before your claim is fully settled. This amount would then be deducted from the final agreed compensation amount, before the balance is sent onto you.
An Example
You receive a settlement offer of £10,000 for your injuries. However, at the advice of our Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors, the offer rejected, because your personal injury claim alone, is worth in the region of £35,000.
However, fast forward two months and your injuries are still ongoing, meaning that you have been unable to return to work.
In circumstances like this, our Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors suggest that we ask the solicitors of the negligent party for an interim payment. They caused you to be injured, after all. An interim payment would be negotiated, depending on the nature of your personal injury, and your loss of income, with payment requested as soon as possible, and no later than 14 days from agreement being reached.
Fast forward another two months. The interim payment has helped to keep you going through this difficult period of time, and MG Legal’s expert team have received various offers of settlement of your personal injury claim, including medical treatment, lost earnings, travel expenses, home adaptations, and loss of property. After making a counter offers, MG Legal’s expert injury lawyers, ensure that you are awarded personal injury compensation that reflects the nature of your injuries. In this example, MG Legal’s injured client received compensation for his injuries totalling over £40,000, plus money for lost earnings.
So, when the final payment is received, the interim payment will be deducted from the final compensation amount (say, £42,000) less the £10,000 that has already been received. The final sum, less the interim payment, is received, by bank transfer, within a week.
Can everyone get interim payments?
If you are making a claim against another person or organisation for Personal Injury Compensation, or for Medical Negligence Injury Compensation, and the third party has admitted that they were at fault, our team of Personal Injury and Medical Negligence Compensation Solicitors can ask for a voluntary interim payment from the other side. If they refuse to cooperate and make the payment, our expert team can prepare Court proceedings, on receipt of the medical evidence, and ask the Court to make an Order, stipulating that an interim payment is paid to you, the Claimant.
An application of this sort can only be made once legal proceedings (i.e. your claim) has been issued in the Court. The Court will check that the third party has admitted that they were at fault or that if your claim proceeded all the way to trial, there would be a reasonable chance that the third party is found to be in the wrong. They will also check why the payment is being requested (i.e. You, as the Claimant, are having financial difficulties are require the money sooner rather than waiting for your claim to be finalised) and that the amount requested is reasonable, and is likely to be less than the final compensation amount that you will receive.
Can I get more than one interim payment?
If your Personal Injury or Medical Negligence Compensation Claim is ongoing for a lengthy amount of time (for example, if your injuries are severe and require extensive medical treatment or a prolonged period of time to assess the long-term damage caused to you), your Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors could discuss making multiple claims for interim payments with you.
As long as the Court’s criteria is satisfied on every occasion, if the third party will not agree, you can ask the Court to make an Order.
What can interim payments be used for?
Well, depending on your financial circumstances, your interim payment may be used to help sustain or improve your quality of your lifestyle whilst you wait for your claim to be finalised. Other people may need to use their interim payment to pay for private medical treatment or equipment, such as house adaptation, to help out with their lives.
What are periodical payments?
Quite often, the terms ‘periodical payments’ and ‘interim payments’ can get confused. Periodical payments are regular and tax-free payments made to the injured person for an agreed period of time or for their life. These usually form part of the agreed settlement for their injury compensation claim, and are paid by the third party responsible for causing the injuries, or from their insurers. These are not interim payments made before final and full settlement of a compensation claim.
Why are periodical payments used?
Well, in cases where a person’s injuries have led to a life-long change in the care they need or the ongoing costs they will incur during their lifetime, it has previously been felt that a lump sum compensation amount was not sufficient to reflect the costs that they would face. Therefore, periodical payments were introduced to help people who have suffered from these types of injuries to be compensated throughout their lifetime.
Is everyone entitled to periodical payments?
Periodical payments will not be used in every claim for Medical Negligence Injuries or Personal Injury Compensation; they would usually only be used in cases where there is a significant future loss or ongoing cost due to the injuries sustained.
How much are periodical payments?
The amount of a periodical payment will differ depending on the injuries incurred, the type and cost of care or medical treatment required in the future and other circumstances of the case. During the claim process, predictions will need to be made about the person’s life in the future, such as how long they can be expected to live, what other medical issues may arise, what housing needs they may have, etc.
When they are negotiating any settlement or periodical payments, our team of Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors will always want to ensure the best possible outcome for our client, to help secure their future.
How can MG Legal help?
MG Legal are experts in dealing with compensation claims for injuries arising out of a Personal Injury accident or a situation of medical negligence. We have a success rate of settling our client’s Personal Injury claims of over 99%, and, we have been voted as one of the top 3 Personal Injury Compensation Solicitors in Lancaster.
To get your claim moving forward, contact our expert team online, here, or via email to injury@mglegal.co.uk.
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