Care and Assistance also known as gratuitous care or services provided by others is a head of claim many people do not realise they can claim for.

These services can be simply driving you to medical appointments, waiting with you, providing child care or assisting in collection and drop off from school, pet care, additional tasks around the house and garden, shopping or with personal care, dressing and cooking.

The potential types of help are many and each claim is different.  To be able to claim the care and assistance needs to have been required because of the accident and be over and above that they would normally provide.  So for example if someone usually walked the dog for you 3 times a week but whilst you were recovering they walked it 7 times a week you could claim for the additional 4 times a week for as many weeks as was required.

The carer does not have a right to make the claim in their own name but it can be included as part of your personal injury claim and claimed on their behalf.  In addition expenses incurred by them whilst they were assisting you such as hospital parking charges can also be claimed.

The claim is usually calculated on the basis of 2/3rds of the cost of professional care locally.

To be successful in a claim for care and assistance the medical expert instructed to report on the injury will need to confirm that the provision of care was reasonable and the expected length of time it would reasonably be required.

Evidence to support the claim is usually by way of a short written statement signed by the person who provided the care confirming what they did, when and for how long.  If out of pocket expenses are also claimed by the carer copy receipts should be kept.

We suggest keeping a note of who helped you, when and what with.  This will make it easier to remember all the help you received following the accident when asked. We can then prepare and calculate the claim for you.