CRIMINAL INJURY COMPENSATION
If you have been physically or mentally injured as a result of a violent crime or sexual abuse in the last 2 years you could be entitled to compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). The size of the award will depend on the seriousness of the injury to you.
The CICA act on behalf of the Government and its purpose is to compensate blameless victims of crime, so even if your attacker is not convicted, or you do not know the identity of your attacker, you may still be entitled to compensation.
The matter must first be reported to the police and a statement taken from you before you can start your claim, however you do not need to wait until your attacker has been convicted and doing so may mean that you miss out on compensation as the CICA has strict time limits.
If you wish to make a claim for historic sexual abuse then you cannot start your claim until you have reported the abuse to the police, after which you will have up to 2 years to bring your claim.
The CICA may request medical evidence, which we can help to arrange for you, or they may send you for a medical examination themselves, which we can help to ensure is at a time and location which is convenient to you.
CICA claims can take some time to settle as they handle a large volume of cases each year, so the sooner that you bring your claim, the sooner that you will be compensated. The CICA recognise the length of time which they can take to settle claims and they currently state that you can expect to wait up to 12 months for them to settle your claim, longer for more complex cases.
The CICA operate a priority system when dealing with claims and the highest priority is dealing with the oldest claims and those with the most vulnerable applicants, however if your case is newer but straightforward then your case may be settled much quicker.
If you have ongoing medical treatment, or your level of recovery is not yet known then the CICA will not settle your case until treatment is finished and there is an expected date of recovery, we can however help to secure you an interim payment from the CICA whilst you are waiting.
The CICA will sometimes reject cases however we can help you to appeal the decision if we believe that you have grounds for doing so.
However long the CICA take to deal with your claim, and whatever the outcome, we will let you know what to expect at each stage of the process.
We can deal with a CICA case on a private fee paying basis of under a Contingency Fee Agreement whereby we would agree to take a percentage of your compensation as payment.