Are there any pitfalls to be wary of in respect of a claimant’s private healthcare funding treatment and wishing to put forward their own costs. Does a claimant have to accept a defendant’s offer to provide rehabilitation or are there other risks?

Q&As

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Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Published on: 06 September 2019

It is quite common for Claimants, particularly those who are employees, to have arranged private cover for healthcare and to seek to use that cover for the provision of certain treatments or therapies following an accident. This may be in respect of the Costs of physiotherapy or surgery and, less commonly, for cognitive behavioral therapy or other psychological therapies. Pursuant to section 2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948, when determining the reasonableness of any medical expenses incurred, the possibility of avoiding those expenses or part of them by taking advantage of treatment available from the National Health Service is to be disregarded. Nonetheless, this does not give the claimant absolute freedom when incurring charges for such expenses.

The major potential pitfall for the claimant in such circumstances is that the Defendant will seek to argue that

Andrew Wilson

Consultant Solicitor

Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience of working in the fields of personal injury and occupational disease litigation, acting for both claimants and defendants. He trained at L Bingham & Co, gaining early experience in a number of important high profile claims involving the MIB. During the 1990s Andrew worked at Hextalls and then Kennedys, predominantly for defendants across a range of motor, employers’ liability and public liability matters many of which involved serious injuries or death. More recently, he has dealt with cases for claimants who have suffered serious injuries or occupational disease. He was a partner in a large specialist practice. He has provided seminars to solicitors and other legal professionals both for an external conference company and in house on the workings of the Civil Procedure Rules in the context of personal injury claims, amongst other subjects.

He has now set up his own legal consultancy, providing advice and support to solicitors, particularly a specialist London practice, in connection with fatal accidents and very serious injury cases such as brain injury, mostly in the High Court. He has continued to develop his education and training activities, providing seminars and contributing articles and commentaries to legal information services.

Since his training, Andrew has retained a particular interest in issues of motor indemnity and the operation of the Road Traffic Act and Article 75.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Claim definition

What does Claim mean?

The formal assertion of a cause of action by one person (the claimant) against another (the defendant).

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Q&As