Criminal Assault

If you are the victim of violence which results in an injury, either physical, psychological or both, you may have a right to compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) scheme.

The CICA is a government funded scheme designed to compensate blameless victims of violent crime.  The rules of the Scheme and the value of the payments awarded are set by Parliament and are calculated by reference to a tariff of injuries.

Compensation amounts range from £1,000 to £500,000, depending on the severity of your injuries.

You may be eligible for compensation if:

• The incident was reported to the police as soon as reasonably possible. Any unreasonable delay may result in your claim being rejected.
• Your injuries meet the minimum award of £1,000 (we can assess this during our initial meeting with you).
• The incident happened within the last two years.
• The incident occurred in England, Wales or Scotland.

Public funding is not available to cover any legal costs of making a CICA claim.  The Scheme is designed so that you can make the claim yourself.  However, specialist advice and careful and considered preparation of your claim, can lead to an increased award.

Often, initial awards offered can be low and an appeal can be made to attempt to increase the award.  Often, a specialist solicitor can be effective in securing a higher award for you.

In order to have your CICA claim run by a solicitor, an agreement can be entered into which states that if the claim is not successful in securing an award, you do not need to pay a fee.  If you are successful in securing an award, you can agree to pay either a fixed fee or a percentage of your award to your solicitor.

If you believe that you might have a claim to the CICA and you would like our advice as to whether it would be beneficial for you to use a solicitor or apply to the Scheme yourself, please feel free to get in contact with us.  We have a great deal of experience in dealing with the CICA Scheme for many different types of injury.