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Following the recent knife attack on a young school girl, personal injury solicitor Hilary Pickup explains how the criminal injuries compensation authority (CICA) works.

What is the CICA?

The CICA - criminal injuries compensation authority is a fund of public money available to compensate victims of crimes of violence.

This includes people who have been attacked, injured while playing sport, and shaken baby victims.

Conditions of applying

For the CICA to accept the application, it will want to be satisfied that:

-The applicant was the victim of a crime of violence.
-The applicant reported the matter to the police as soon as possible.
-The applicant thereafter co-operated with any further police enquiries or investigations.

How do I apply?

The application process is fairly straightforward - for minor injuries there isn't often a need to involve a solicitor.

If a solicitor is consulted, it is important to be aware that the CICA does not pay legal costs and it is likely that the solicitor's costs and additional expenses such as fees for access to medical records and the instruction of medical experts will be deducted from the compensation.

"A specialist solicitor will be able to spot that the maximum CICA award is applicable. They will have experience of dealing with the CICA and its criteria - so they can keep costs low and provide what is necessary to achieve the maximum award," said personal injury solicitor Hilary Pickup, who handles a large number of CICA claims.

What happens then?

If the application satisfies the set criteria, the CICA will then begin to make investigations. Reports will be obtained and statements taken from the relevant police officers. Confirmation of the applicant's injuries will be sought from either medical records or a medical report. Details of the applicant's out of pocket expenses and losses will be requested.

Once the CICA has sufficient information to make an award, the applicant will be advised in writing of the award that they propose to make. The awards are made in accordance with the CICA tariff scheme which allocates specific awards to specific injuries. The minimum award that can be made is £1,000 and the maximum is £500,000. The maximum award was introduced in April 2001. Applications submitted under the previous tariff scheme will be able to secure awards in excess of this maximum.

Time limits

An application must be submitted within two years of the crime of violence taking place, although it is possible in certain circumstances to request that the deadline be waived.

There are two other important criteria that should be considered that relate particularly to claims for compensation for abuse that occurred many years ago. Applications will not be accepted if the event took place before 1st August 1964 and applications will not be accepted if the crime of violence took place before 1st October 1979 and the applicant and the perpetrator were living together as members of the same family.

Compensation

Where multiple injuries have been sustained the CICA will compensate the applicant in accordance with the severity of the separate injuries. 100% of the tariff amount will be awarded for the most severe injury, 30% for the second most severe and 15% for the third. The CICA will accept applications for psychological injury only and for fatal incident claims. It should be noted that the awards in the latter are fixed awards under the tariff scheme.

Appeal

Once an award has been made it is possible to seek a review of the amount awarded. The CICA will pass the application to a senior case worker who will consider the review and make a further decision. If the decision is still one which the applicant does not accept, an appeal hearing before the CICA Appeals Panel can be requested.

Alexander Harris' specialist personal injury department handles a wide range of CICA cases.

 

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