Solicitors for Travel Expenses Compensation

Yes. Journeys you have had to make because of the injury, such as travelling to hospital, GP, physiotherapy or specialist appointments, are a recoverable expense. Travel is a form of special damages, which means it compensates for money the injury has cost you. It is one of the smaller heads of loss in most claims, but it is one of the easiest to prove provided you keep a record as you go.

The main ones are mileage for journeys you drive yourself, public transport fares, taxi fares where driving or public transport was not possible, parking charges, and congestion or toll charges. It can also include the cost of a family member driving you to appointments, and in some cases additional journeys such as repeated visits to a hospital some distance away. Anything you would not have had to pay but for the injury is worth looking at.

Mileage is usually claimed at a standard rate per mile, which is the approach the courts use to value the running cost of a car. What matters most is the record. Keep a simple log of the date, the destination, the purpose of the journey and the number of miles. Photographing your odometer before and after, or checking the distance on a route planner, is enough to make it reliable. Without a record, the loss is very difficult to reconstruct later.

Receipts help, and for anything you paid for such as a taxi, a train ticket or a car park they are the best evidence. But a mileage claim is different, because no money changes hands at the time. For mileage, a clear log is the evidence, not a receipt. It is worth keeping receipts where you have them and the log in every case, because between them they cover almost everything.

Yes. If a relative or friend drove you to appointments because you could not drive or use public transport, the mileage can be claimed in the same way, at the standard rate per mile. It is the journey that has value, whoever was at the wheel. Keep the same log with the dates and destinations, and note who drove if it was not you.

Journeys to attend a medical examination arranged for the claim, or to meet your solicitor, are generally recoverable where they were necessary. These appointments exist because of the claim, so the travel they require is part of the loss. Keep the record in the same way as your treatment journeys, so nothing is missed off at the end.

Usually not in itself. For a claimant attending a short course of physiotherapy, travel might amount to a modest figure. But where treatment continues for a long period, where appointments are at a specialist centre some distance away, or where a serious injury involves years of appointments, the total can become significant. It is worth recording whatever the amount, because a loss that is documented is a loss that can be claimed.

Yes. The claim covers journeys made throughout the period the injury has affected you, including those made soon after the accident and before any claim was started. If you have kept tickets, parking receipts or appointment letters, they can be pulled together retrospectively. It is simply easier if you have been keeping a note all along.

No. Travel is a head of loss in its own right, added to the claim rather than deducted from anything. It sits alongside lost earnings, treatment costs, care and assistance, and other expenses as part of the special damages, and it is claimed in addition to the general damages for the injury itself. What is recoverable depends on the evidence, which is why the record matters.

Yes. Travel is simply one element of the compensation, funded in the same way as the rest. Suitable claims may be accepted under a Conditional Fee Agreement, commonly called No Win No Fee, subject to an assessment of liability, the evidence and the prospects of success. If the claim succeeds, a success fee may be payable, and in many personal injury claims the legal cap is 25% of the relevant categories of damages including VAT.