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In most of the information free available in the United Kingdom citizen agencies regarding personal accidents and personal claims, the focus is on an adult person or persons as the victim of the accident. The advice normally reads as if the accidentally injured party is the one reading the article.

However, there are different kinds of accident claims that you may have to face at some point. These are instances when you may act as the claimant in for someone else.

For example, if you are the spouse or family member of someone who was killed due to an injury, then you will be claiming compensatory damages in the name of the deceased. As such, the same time limit of three years applies, as it does if you were the one seeking compensation, except that you have three years from the victim's death to make the accidents claim.

If the injured individual survived the injury and then died within three years after the injury occurred, the surviving spouse or family member can still file in court as long as the action is take no more than three years after the death or after knowing or discovering the cause of the original injury. The family member can settle the case, receive any compensating awards or also end up having to pay the costs of the opposite party should they lose the case.

If it is a child that has been injured in the U.K., then the three year time limit for filing doesn't begin until the child reaches the age of eighteen. However, this doesn't mean that you have to wait until the child is eighteen. The papers can be filed at any time after the injury and until the end of the three year time limit.

The law in Great Britain does say that a child cannot take legal action on his or her own. They must have an older person act as the claimer. This individual is called a 'litigation friend,' and will take the action in the child's name. This friend could be a close relative, an adult friend, a court appointed advocate or a social worker.

It is not always an individual who wants to take some form of legal action for an injury. Perhaps an entire group of people suffered from a similar accidental injury case, such as from a plane crash, by a product or in an auto accident. In these situations, it is very common for the group to take action together. The faulted party then ends up compensating all of the victims in one process instead of all of them individually.

In this type of case, there can be complications regarding who will get what part of the award that was claimed, or who will pay what part of the costs for their legal fees and the defendant's legal fees should the group lose. Therefore any group who is thinking about filing jointly is normally recommended by advising agencies to seek professional assistance. A professional can personalise the case to the group's needs. However, looking in the personals is not necessarily the best way to find an appropriate solicitor. The local Citizens Advisory Board, located throughout the U.K., is an excellent resource for free legal information and solicitor recommendations.