Criminal Assault Compensation Claims

If you have been injured following a criminal assault, for example violent mugging, sexual assault or unprovoked attack, you may be able to pursue a claim for damages:

• Through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authorities (CICA)
• Through the courts in a civil claim for damages

Our personal injury solicitors have extensive experience dealing with criminal assault claims and particularly negotiating procedures involving the government-funded CICA scheme.

We currently represent victims of alleged sexual assault by film producer Harvey Weinstein in civil claims.

Criminal Injuries Compensation Authorities (CICA)

CICA is a government organisation that can pay compensation to people who have been physically or mentally injured as a blameless victim of a violent crime, including terrorist attack. Awards range from £1,000 to £500,000.

Financial awards can be made:

• To recognise physical and mental injuries due to criminal assault.
• In certain circumstances, to obtain compensation for past or future lost earnings or special expenses caused by such a crime.
• For bereavement as a result of a criminal assault, including, in some cases, compensation for the lost earnings of the person who has been killed.

CICA guidelines include:

• Your injury must have been caused by a criminal assault in England, Scotland or Wales (Northern Ireland has its own scheme).
• Your compensation application must be lodged within two years of the assault, although this is discretionary and can be waived.
• You must have reported the criminal assault to the police and fully co-operated with them.
• The state will only provide compensation if your injuries exceed the £1,000 tariff.

To be successful in any CICA compensation claim, you must be able to prove that you are the innocent victim of a violent crime. If CICA considers you provoked or willingly participated in the criminal assault, it could refuse or reduce personal injury compensation. The same is true if you have a record of violence or a criminal conviction.

Our successful claims include:

• Jill Greenfield acted for Amanda Lawson (Lawson v Glaves-Smith, Executor for the Estate of Dawes) who recovered the highest award of damages for pain and suffering from a civil rape case - one of only a very few civil rape cases pursued in the UK. Read about the case in the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail. 
• Jennifer Buchanan obtained the maximum £500,000 award from CICA for a student assaulted outside a night club, who will suffer life-long health problems. Read about it here.
• Jill Greenfield and Mark Bowman acted for a young man who suffered injuries as a baby and who recovered £5.5 million. (This case pre-dates the CICA cap of £500,000).  Read the case study.
• We acted for British Victims of Terrorism caught up in a terrorist bombing in Kusadasi, Turkey in 2005. Jill has also been involved in a successful campaign to introduce a financial support scheme for British victims of terrorism abroad. The scheme was passed into law on 8 April 2010 as part of the Crime and Security Bill. You can read the debate in the House of Lords about the new scheme here.
• We also acted for a police worker, Keith Tilbury, who was shot during a training exercise. Jill obtained a six figure sum and an admission of liability for the incident from Thames Valley Police.