Claim Compensation For Child Hit By A Car

By Danielle Newton. Last Updated 21st June 2023. This guide will answer important questions regarding personal injury claims, such as “my child got hit by a car, can I claim?” It will clarify the nature and necessary circumstances required to make a successful personal injury claim and highlight the benefits of using a No Win No Fee personal injury solicitor from our panel. 

child got hit by a car

A guide on what to do if your child got hit by a car

You can also contact our advisors if you have any questions or queries about claiming for a road traffic accident. They’re available 24/7 and offer legal advice at no cost whatsoever. Additionally, if you have a valid claim, they can also put you through to our panel of solicitors who could help with your case. 

However, please remember that you’re under no obligation to use our services should you contact us. So what’s to lose? Contact us using the below details. 

Read on to learn answers to important questions such as, “can you claim for a child in a car accident?” and “how old do you have to be to claim compensation?”. We’ll also discuss how much compensation may be offered in child injury claims.

Select A Section

  1. Can You Claim For A Personal Injury To A Child?
  2. How Do Child Accident Claims Work?
  3. My Child Was Hit By A Car – What Evidence Do I Need To Claim?
  4. Can I Claim If The Driver Hasn’t Been Prosecuted Or Is Untraced?
  5. The Highway Code And Accidents Involving Children
  6. List Of Compensation Payouts – Child Accident Compensation
  7. Why Make A Child Accident Claim With Our Specialist Solicitors?

Can You Claim For A Personal Injury To A Child?

If your child got hit by a car, you might be wondering if you can claim compensation for the injury caused. To receive compensation for any personal injury claim, it’s important to prove that the injury was caused by another road user’s negligence. 

In the UK, every road user has a duty of care outlined in The Highway Code. To claim compensation, you need to prove that the driver who caused the accident breached this duty, and it was these actions that resulted in your child’s injury. If you’re able to do this, you can prove that the cause of the injury (or the worsening of it) was negligence. 

You could claim on behalf of your child by being their litigation friend. More information about that is provided in the next section. You can also contact our advisors for free legal advice at any time that works for you. They can be contacted using the details above. 

How Do Child Accident Claims Work? 

A child isn’t allowed to make a personal injury claim until their eighteenth birthday. However, they can still seek compensation by appointing a litigation friend. This is how you could seek compensation on behalf of a child if they got hit by a car.   

A litigation friend can be a child’s parent, guardian or family member, family friend, solicitor, professional advocate, Court of Protection Deputy or someone with the enduring or lasting power of attorney. They represent the child when seeking compensation for a personal injury. Once the child has assigned a litigation friend, the friend can organise legal counsel, if requested, and should only act in the child’s best interest. 

However, please remember that if your child got hit by a car, you wouldn’t be able to claim using the Whiplash Reform Program. This program is for if you’ve suffered an injury from a road traffic accident over the age of eighteen and want to claim for injuries valued at £5,000 or less. 

Limitation Periods In Child Accident Claims

If you want to claim because your child got hit by a car, another important aspect of claiming is the time limit. This is often referred to as a limitation period. In a standard personal injury claim, the time limit is three years from the date of the injury or the date you’re aware that the injury was caused by third-party negligence. 

However, this is different with child injury claims. You can be assigned as your child’s litigation friend to claim on their behalf. If you are, regardless of when your child suffered the relevant injury, you have up to the date of their eighteenth birthday to begin claims proceedings. 

If a claim still hasn’t been made by the time the child turns eighteen, they would have three years from the date of their eighteenth birthday to claim. Furthermore, if a claim has already begun, the child can choose to take over the claim upon their eighteenth birthday. 

This is all clarified in the Limitation Act 1980. For more information about the time limits regarding claiming, please contact our advisors for legal advice that is completely free of charge. They can be contacted 24/7 using the details above. 

My Child Was Hit By A Car – What Evidence Do I Need To Claim?

If you would like to make a personal injury claim on behalf of your child, you will need to collect sufficient evidence. Collecting sufficient evidence could highlight the types of injuries suffered when your child was hit by a car, and that the driver was liable for the accident.

Some examples of evidence that could be useful when claiming on behalf of your child could include:

  • A copy of your child’s medical records that state the nature of the injury they suffered, along with what treatment they require.
  • The contact details of anyone who witnessed your child getting hit by a car so they can give a statement later in the claiming process.
  • If the police attended the accident, a copy of the police report.
  • Videos of the incident, such as from a dashcam.
  • Photographs from the accident scene and any visible injuries your child suffered.

If you need any help collecting evidence, please get in touch with one of our advisors for free advice.

Can I Claim If The Driver Hasn’t Been Prosecuted Or Is Untraced? 

You could claim if your child got injured by a car if the driver is uninsured or untraced. In a standard road traffic accident claim, you would generally claim through the relevant insurance companies. However, you cannot do this if the driver isn’t insured or there was a hit and run. 

In this instance, you could claim through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). The MIB compensates victims of accidents where the other driver was uninsured or untraced. You can contact them to claim for injuries caused by uninsured or untraced drivers. A personal injury lawyer could help you with this process. 

The Highway Code And Accidents Involving Children

As previously mentioned, every road user in Britain has a duty of care outlined in The Highway Code. There are several sections of the Code that can help prevent passengers and other road users from suffering injuries due to substandard driving. Some relate directly to children. 

Important rules include: 

  • Rule 126 – This defines acceptable stopping distances. You need to be considerate by leaving space between you and the vehicle in front to ensure you can stop safely if the front vehicle suddenly stops. 
  • Rule 205 – Every driver of a vehicle should consider pedestrians stepping out unexpectedly into the road. You should drive with the safety of children in mind. 
  • Rule 208 – Drive slowly near schools and be aware of pedestrians and young cyclists. 

List Of Compensation Payouts – Child Accident Compensation

If your child got hit by a car, they could potentially receive up to two types of compensation when making a personal injury claim. The amount they receive isn’t affected by having a litigation friend. That’s because the litigation friend is acting on the child’s behalf, therefore the compensation awarded goes to the child. 

General damages is the first type of compensation. It relates to the child’s pain and suffering caused by the accident. This can be physical and psychological damage leading to a general decline in their quality of life. The amount they could receive depends on aspects such as the extent of the injury, the recovery period and whether there are any permanent side effects. 

Work from the Judicial College provides you with a greater understanding of the amount your child could receive. They compare injuries with the amount paid out for them in a personal injury claim. By doing this, they’ve built potential compensation brackets which you can see in the table below. However, please remember that these brackets only indicate what you could receive as every case is assessed on an independent basis. 

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Injury Type Severity Compensation Bracket Description
Brain Moderate (iii) £43,060 to £90,720 Cases in this bracket affect the injured person’s memory and concentration, with their ability to work or function at school being reduced. There is also a small epilepsy risk.
Hand Serious £29,000 to £61,910 This bracket is for injuries that have reduced the hand to around 50% capacity.
Neck Severe (iii) £45,470 to £55,990 Injuries in this bracket include dislocations, fractures or soft tissue injuries leading to chronic conditions and significant and permanent disability.
Injuries to the Pelvis and Hip Severe (iii) £39,170 to £52,500 Injuries in this bracket include an acetabulum fracture causing degenerative changes and a fracture that requires hip replacement which is only partially successful.
Eye Loss of Sight (f) £23,680 to £39,340 This bracket is for cases of serious but also incomplete vision loss in one eye without significant reduction of vision or risk of loss in the remaining eye.
Severe Leg Injuries Moderate (iv) £27,760 to £39,200 This bracket applies to instances where either multiple fractures or crush injuries of a severe nature have occurred, typically affecting just one of the legs.
Back Moderate (ii) £12,510 to £27,760 Many frequent back injuries are in this bracket, including prolapsed discs resulting in laminectomy or causing repeated relapses.
Back Minor (i) £7,890 to £12,510 This bracket is for relatively minor cases of back injuries, such as strains or soft tissue injuries where a full recovery, or a recovery to the injury being nuisance level, takes place without surgery within two to five years.
Shoulder Serious £12,770 to £19,200 Injuries in this bracket include lower brachial plexus damage, causing neck and shoulder pain, or shoulder dislocation.
Psychiatric Damage Generally Moderate £5,860 to £19,070 This bracket applies to instances of psychiatric damage that leads to issues with the injured person’s ability to function. However, a marked improvement will have occurred by the time a trial occurs and, due to this, the prognosis is good.

To prove general damages, your child would need to attend a medical assessment as part of the claims process. An independent medical professional would ask your child questions and refer to their medical records if applicable. After the assessment, they’d create a report that has two main purposes:

  1. To establish the severity of the injuries
  2. To assess whether the injuries are consistent with those that could be caused by the accident

If you use the services of a solicitor to claim, they could use the report as evidence as well as a tool for valuing the child’s injuries.

Your child could also claim special damages. This is compensation for financial losses caused by the injury. As such, you could claim for losses like:

  • Loss of earnings caused by missing work when having to care for your child
  • Private healthcare fees if the NHS was unable to cover care
  • Fees for a lost deposit from a holiday that you can no longer go on
  • Travel costs (to and from the hospital, for example)

If your child got hit by a car and you’d like more information about how much they could claim, please contact our advisors for free legal advice. They’re available 24/7, can tell you if you’re eligible to claim and can even provide you with a free compensation estimate. Contact them using the above details. 

Why Make A Child Accident Claim With Our Specialist Solicitors?

You may be wondering what the benefits of using a No Win No Fee solicitor are when seeking compensation for a road traffic accident. The advantages include:

  • No upfront solicitor fees.
  • Not paying solicitor fees at any point during the claims process. 
  • Only paying solicitor fees at the end of your claim and only if the claim is successful. Your solicitor would take a small, legally capped compensation amount to cover their work. 

If your child has suffered a personal injury, you may question how the claims process works. Our advisors can answer any queries you have about the personal injury claims process at a time that works for you, as they’re available 24/7. If you have favourable grounds for a claim, they can also transfer you to a personal injury solicitor from our panel to help build a case.

Contact us on a no-obligation basis using the below details. 

Child Accident Claim Resource

Use the links below for more information. 

Have you or your child broken a bone? If so, read this NHS guide for medical guidance. 

The NHS also provides a guide on what to do if your child has had an accident. 

The Department for Transport provides road accident and safety statistics for Great Britain.

Read this article on our website to learn more about making claims due to being a passenger in a road traffic accident. 

This guide provides everything you need to know about road traffic accident claims. 

Read this article to learn how to receive interim payments in personal injury claims. 

If you still have questions about claiming because your child got hit by a car, please contact our advisors for free legal advice. They’re available 24/7 and can be contacted using the above details. 

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