Your Personal Injury Claim: A Practical Guide to Drafting a Witness Statement

In your Personal Injury Claim, your opinion statement is a document which will be used as your evidence-in-chief.

Your witness statement will tell your version of events and give you the chance to get your say in Court without needing to experience the events in the witness box.

But, there’s more to a witness statement compared to a written note of everything that’s happened. It’s a formal, structured document that has to adhere to standards to be valid.

If your case goes to Court, then you’ll be questioned in your witness statement on the other hand and asked to expand on particular issues. This will be finished before a judge, in the witness box the Judge can listen to your remarks and construct their comprehension of your claim.

It is essential your witness statement is extraordinarily comprehensive as it will serve as an opportunity for you to go through the entirety of your claim in one document. If your claim visit Court anything will be given less weight or influence.

What Must Move Into Each Witness Statement?

Each and every witness statement should:

  • Beheaded using the title of the proceedings;
  • State the full title and address of the witness;
  • Give the witness’s occupation state the absence of occupation;
  • Be typed if possible, and published on single side A4 paper;
  • Be divided into numbered paragraphs;

End with a signed and dated Statement of Truth.

Your statement should include a very brief summary of your health before your injury, how your injury occurred, the immediate wake, your therapy, any monetary losses you’ve suffered, any aid and assistance you have received from friends and family, any ongoing symptoms you’re suffering and the way your injury has influenced your occupation, hobbies, family members, and relationships. NOVA Injury Law

The Language on your Witness Statement

Your witness statement should’tell the story’ of your accident and retrieval and the effect this has had in your life and the people around you. Click here to get started

You need to remember you will have personal knowledge of these events covered from the announcement. The Judge will not. It is important that you cover all of the essential background and events. Your aim should be to receive your side of the story across to the Judge. To do this, your statement has to be structured with the events described in order and language. A statement that does not pay for the material in the arrangement or uses language that is long-winded is likely to confuse.

It’s typical for individuals to feel that, since the witness statement is a legal document, it should be filled with long words and rambling sentences. This isn’t the situation. You have to draft your announcement using language; this usually means you shouldn’t use language or any over-elaborate phrases.

A sentence that reads I was injured in a road traffic accident is much preferable to I collided brusquely using all the Defendants automatized engine vehicle.

The Purchase of Your Witness Statement

When Assembling your Witness Statement, you should be sure it includes specific information. Most personal injury witness statements can fit and will be detailed below.

Using subheadings is supported as it makes studying extended statements considerably easier as the information is broken down and easy to see.

Your announcement should contain the following keywords:

Your Own Accident

Under this heading, you will describe the physical mechanics of your injury. You need to explain step by step how your accident occurred, and what happened afterward, with as much detail as you can remember. If you can’t recall certain things they say, therefore, do not contain information that comes from someone else.

For example, in the event that you suffered a fall but do not recall what occurred immediately after your collapse then say so. Explain that you’re dazed by the fall and cannot remember what happened, say which your next clear memory is of X. Do not say that your partner who was there when you fell says that X, Y & Z happened immediately after your fall. Your spouse says this themselves and can make their announcement.

Under this heading, you also need to say why you believe the Defendant was at fault, why they caused your accident.

Your Injuries

This heading must detail exactly what injury you have suffered. Be certain to include of your injuries in the event that you believe they’re insignificant; this includes any injuries you’ve suffered. Bear in mind the more detail you add, the stronger your case will be.

In case you’ve suffered multiple injuries, then you can use bullet points to create this clear and nice.

When possible, you should say how long it took you to recover from the injury or if you have not recovered at the time of writing the statement

Your Treatment

This section should detail your treatment. As you will need to supply details of each and every appointment, this will be the aspect of your announcement you attended for your harm. You need to include details like:

The time and date of this appointment;

Who you watched;

What was discussed;

The way the appointment finished, e.g. what were you told could happen next.

If you are not sure of these details, you can visit your GP surgery and Hospital and request a copy of your medical records. Your medical records will have a comprehensive account of your appointments and what was discussed. You might have to pay for these, however, the GP or Hospital can’t charge you over #50.00 for them.

Voluntary Care

Under this heading, you will talk about the quantity of assistance, care and help you needed after your accident. You need to include as much detail as possible, be certain that you include detail for what care/help you needed and why also name just how long it took them every and who supplied you with this care/assistance. By way of instance, you could say, I had help from my spouse, Lisa, together with carrying and fetching, she also did my share of the actions and drove me to all my appointments. This took on four hours. I needed this amount of care for your first two weeks after my accident.

In the event the person who provided care and support to you is prepared, it’d be useful if they did a supportive witness statement, detailing the support and care they provided to you. They should give as much detail regarding what jobs/tasks they carried out that was done and how much time it took them.

Financial Losses & Loss of Earnings

Beneath this section, you want to provide details about how much time you had to take off work and if you received sick pay for this moment. If your sick pay was less you need to be certain about how much income you lost.

You should also use this heading to discuss how much cash you had to spend on medications, aids and other items that you would not have bought but for your accident.

You need to provide proof for any claim you make about finical losses; evidence can contain copies of your wage slips, or receipts/invoices for things. These could be attached to a witness statement as shows.

Impact on Your Lifestyle

Under this heading, you should provide details regarding your injury’s influence on your lifestyle. Did it prevent you from pursuing your hobbies, going on vacation, spending time? Can it affect your relationship with friends, your loved ones or significant other? Can it impact on your sex life? Include as much detail as you can personalize and you need to look at.

In conclusion

You must now have a comprehension of exactly what a witness statement is, what it is designed to accomplish and how to put one together.