Is there a court timetable?

Pre-trial rules, known as a 'protocol', require your legal representative to put sufficient details in a claim letter to your employer to enable your employer to investigate your claim. Your employer, the defendant, has to acknowledge the letter and then has three months to decide whether or not to admit responsibility for the injury. During that time your representative will obtain your medical records and a medical report.

If you have to start a court case, the court will hold a case management conference and set a timetable for the remaining stages of preparation of the case and a date for the trial.

• Some cases may be settled in a matter of months.
• Others may take two to three years to come to conclude particularly where the claimant's medical condition has not stabilised.