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Injury

The Criminal Injury Board (CICA) will pay compensation to qualifying victims of crime. Awards of compensation do not include a separate award to cover legal costs which are deducted from any sum awarded.

Compensation for a victim of violent crime is usually dealt with by the CICA which was set up to compensate the victims of violent crime. The CICA which has departments based in London and Glasgow administers a Government funded compensation scheme which is operated on the basis of awarding a ‘tariff’ or value to every type of trauma. If a victim has numerous injuries then only the worst three are considered and before aggregating the values outlined by the tariff table the second and third most serious injuries are discounted by a pre-determined percentage.

There is a well established appeals procedure running throughout the determination process and interim decisions relating to a claim, made by criminal injury board officers, can be escalated to a higher officer for reconsideration and final decisions can be taken to the independent Appeals Panel for reconsideration. The Appeals Panel is subject to scrutiny by the Parliamentary Ombudsman who will investigate allegations of maladministration.

The regulations require the Crinial Injury Board to consider all of the circumstances of an application and may reduce or refuse an award in a number of circumstances which include :-

• The application must be made within two years of the assault taking place although there is power for the criminal injury board to extend the time period.
• The applicants character is considered by reference to previous convictions for any offences that have not been ‘spent’ under The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Compensation can be refused for convicted offenders.
• The applicants behaviour before, during and after the assault is taken into account. Anyone who voluntarily entered into a fight will not receive compensation and anyone who sought to retaliate after an assault is unlikely to receive compensation.
• The trauma, either physical or psychological, must be sufficient to justify an award of at least £1,000 which usually indicates that the injury lasted for a minimum of 6 weeks and required at least two visits to see a doctor.
• The claimant must report the incident to the police or a relevant authority promptly. A criminal injury compensation claim may still be paid even in the absence of a conviction provided that the applicant has co-operated fully with the police.
• Offences involving motor vehicles are excluded from the scheme unless a vehicle is deliberately used as a weapon
• There are also complex regulations relating to offences occurring within a co-habiting family and for some sexual offences.

CICA claims are dealt with on a no win no fee basis however the CICA do not pay legal costs or expenses and the legal costs of dealing with a CICA claim will be deducted from the amount of any award. There is no charge if an award is refused by the CICA. Our claims are guaranteed to be completely risk free.